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OUR EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURS 

Edited by William Harbutt Dawson. 12 . Illustrated. 
Each, net $1.20. By mail, $1.30 

NOW READY 

French Life in Town and Country. By Hannah 
Lynch. 

German Life in Town and Country. By W. H. 
Dawson, author of "Germany and the Germans," 
etc. 

Russian Life in Town and Country. By Francis H. 
E. Palmer, sometime Secretary to H. M. Prince 
Droutskop-Loubetsky (Equerry to H. M. the Em- 
peror of Russia). 

Dutch Life in Town and Country. By P. M. Hough. 

Swiss Life in Town and Country. By Alfred T. 
Story. 

Spanish Life in Town and Country. By L. Higgin. 

IN PREP A RA TION 
Italian Life in Town and Country. By Luigi 

VlLLARI. 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London 



OUR EUROPEAN 
NEIGHBOURS 

EDITED BY 

WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON 



SPANISH LIFE IN TOWN AND 
COUNTRY 




T 



IN CHURCH." SHOWING THE MANTILLA AND VELO 



SPANISH LIFE 
IN TOWN AND 
COUNTRY & h 

o« OS ^ By L HIGGIN 

WITH CHAPTERS ON 

PORTUGUESE LIFE IN TOWN AND 
COUNTRY, BY EUGENE E. STREET 



ILLUSTRATED 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

Gbe Iknfckerbocftet press 

1902 







! - v Ol 


cc~ 




ESS, 


T. vr , ( 


Received 


MAY. 


15 


1902 


Copyright 


ENTRY 


CLASS 


/3 


_ l(] 01- 
KXc. No. 


3 "L 


S 


L 8 


COPY 


3. 



Copyright, 1902 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



Published, May, 1902 



8 
W 



« • • . 



Ube "ffmicfeerbocfeer press, IWew H?ork 



NOTE BY THE EDITOR 

IT has been thought well to include Portugal in this 
volume, so as to embrace the entire Iberian Peninsula. 
Though geographically contiguous, and so closely asso- 
ciated in the popular mind, the Spanish and Portuguese 
nations offer in fact the most striking divergences alike 
in character and institutions, and separate treatment was 
essential in justice to each country. The preferential 
attention given to Spain is only in keeping with the 
more prominent part she has played, and may yet play, 
in the history of civilisation. 



I am indebted for the chapters on Portugal to Mr. 
Eugene E. Street, whose long and intimate acquaintance 
with the land and its people renders him peculiarly 
fitted to draw their picture. 

L. HIGGIN. 



CONTENTS 

SPANISH LIFE 

CHAPTER I PAGE 

Land and People i 

CHAPTER II 
Types and Traits 24 

CHAPTER III 
National Characteristics 38 

CHAPTER IV 
Spanish Society 55 

CHAPTER V 
Modern Madrid 77 

CHAPTER VI 
The Court 97 

CHAPTER VII 
Popular Amusements in 

CHAPTER VIII 
The Press and its Leaders . . . .129 

CHAPTER IX 
Pouticai, Government 142 

vii 



viii Contents 

CHAPTER X PAGE 

Commerce and Agriculture .... 156 

CHAPTER XI 
The Army and Navy 183 

CHAPTER XII 
Religious Life 198 

CHAPTER XIII 
Education and the Priesthood . . .213 

CHAPTER XIV 
Philanthropy — Position of Women — Mar- 
riage Customs 226 

CHAPTER XV 
Music, Art, and the Drama .... 236 

CHAPTER XVI 
Modern Literature 246 

CHAPTER XVII 
The Future of Spain 260 

PORTUGUESE LIFE 

CHAPTER XVIII 
Land and People 277 

CHAPTER XIX 
Portuguese Institutions 298 

Index 3*5 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

"In Church." Showing the Mantieea and 
Veeo . Frontispiece 

Peasants 2 

A Corner in Oijd Madrid 8 

SEVIEEE Cigarrera ...... 20 

Peasants 20 

Vaeencianos 26 * 

The Water Tribunal in Valencia. Showing 
Vaeencian Costumes ..... 34 

Past Work 50 ~ 

Knife-Grinder ... o ... 50 

Outside the Peaza de Toros, Madrid . .78 

Bueyes Resting .94* 

In the Woods at La Granja . . . . 104 < 

Peaza de Toros. Picador Caught by the Buee 120 

Peaza de Toros. The Procession . . . 124 

ix 



X 



Illustrations 



Dragging out the Dead Buee . 

The Escuriae 

A Wedding Party in Estremadura 
A Country Cabin in Gaeicia 



PAGE 

126 
140 
170 
292 




SPANISH LIFE IN TOWN AND 
COUNTRY 



SPANISH LIFE IN TOWN 
AND COUNTRY 



CHAPTER I 



LAND AND PEOPLE 



ONLY in comparatively late years has the 
Iberian Continent been added to the happy 
hunting-grounds of the ordinary British and 
American tourist, and somewhat of a check arose 
after the outbreak of the war with America. To 
the other wonderful legends which gather round 
this romantic country, and are spread abroad, 
unabashed and uncontradicted, was added one 
more, to the effect that so strong a feeling existed 
on the part of the populace against Americans, 
that it was unsafe for English-speaking visitors 
to travel there. Nothing is farther from the 
truth; there is no hatred of American or English, 
and, if there had been, they little know the 
innate courtesy of the Spanish people, who fear 



2 Spanish Life 

insult that is not due to the overbearing manners 
of the tourist himself. 

To-day, however, everyone is going to Spain, 
and as the number of travellers increases, so, per- 
haps, does the real ignorance of the country and 
of her people become more apparent, for, after a 
few days, or at most weeks, spent there, those who 
seem to imagine that they have discovered Spain, 
as Columbus discovered America, deliver their 
judgment upon her with all the audacity of igno- 
rance, or, at best, with very imperfect informa- 
tion and capacity for forming an opinion. 

For many years, the foreign element in Spain 
was so small that all who made their home in the 
country were known and easily counted, while 
those who travelled were, for the most part, culti- 
vated people — artists, or lovers of art, or persons 
interested in some way in the commercial or in- 
dustrial progress of the nation. Even in those 
days, however, too many tourists spent their time 
amongst the dead cities, remnants of Spain's great 
past, and came back to add their quota to the 
sentimental notions current about the romantic 
land sung by Byron. Wrapped in a glamour for 
which their own enthusiasm was mainly respon- 
sible, they beheld all things coloured with the 
rich glow of a resplendent sunset; their descrip- 
tions of people and places raised expectations too 
often cruelly dispelled by facts, as presented to 
those of less exuberant imaginations. 

On the other hand, the mere British traveller, 



Land and People 3 

knowing nothing of art, almost nothing of his- 
tory, and very little of anything beyond his own 
provincial parish, finds all that is not the com- 
monplace of his own country, barbarous and 
utterly beneath contempt. His own manners, 
not generally of the best, set all that is proud and 
dignified in the lowest Spaniard in revolt; he im- 
agines that he meets with discourtesy where, in 
fact, he has gone out to seek it, and his own 
ignorance is chiefly to blame for his failure to 
understand a people wholly unlike his own class 
associates at home. He, too, returns, shaking 
the dust off his feet, to draw a picture of the land 
he has left, as false and misleading as that of the 
dreamer who has overloaded his picture with 
colour that does not exist for the ordinary tourist. 
Thus it too often comes to pass that visitors to 
Spain experience keen disappointment during 
their short stay in the country. Whether they 
always acknowledge it or not, is another question. 
To hit the happy medium, and to draw from a 
tour in Spain, or from a more prolonged sojourn 
there, all the pleasure that may be derived from 
it, and to feel with those who, knowing the 
country and its people intimately, love it dearly, 
a remembrance of its past history and of its 
strange agglomeration of nationalities is abso- 
lutely necessary; nor can any true idea be formed 
of the country from a mere acquaintance with any 
one of its widely differing provinces. Galicia 
is, even to-day, more nearly allied to Portugal 



4 Spanish Life 

than to Spain, and it was only in 1668 that the 
independence of the former was acknowledged, 
and it became a separate kingdom. 

With all rights now equalised, the inhabitants 
of the remaining provinces of Spain differ as 
widely from one another as they do from the sis- 
ter kingdom, while the folklore of Asturias and 
of the Basque Provinces is very closely allied with 
that of Portugal. To judge the Biscayan by the 
same standard as the Andaluz, is as sensible as it 
would be to compare the Irish squatter with Corn- 
ish fisher-folk, or the peasants of Wilts and Surrey 
with the Celtic races of the West Highlands of 
Scotland, or even with the people of Lancashire 
or Yorkshire. 

Nor is it possible to speak of Spain as a whole, 
and of what she is likely to make of the present 
impulse towards national growth and industrial 
prosperi ty, without remembering that her popu- 
lation counts, among its rapidly increasing num- 
bers, the far-seeing and business-like, if somewhat 
selfish, Catalan, with a language of his own; the 
dreamy, pleasure-loving Andaluz; the vigorous 
Basque, whose distinctive language is not to 
be learned or understood by the people of any 
other part of Spain; the half-Moorish Valencian 
and the self-respecting Aragonese, who have al- 
ways made their mark in the history of their 
country, and were looked upon as a foreign ele- 
ment in the da3^s when their kingdom and that of 
Leon were united, under one crown, with Castile. 



Land and People 5 

It was only after Alfonso XII. had stamped out 
the last Carlist war that the ancient fueros, or 
special rights, of the Basque Provinces became a 
thing of the past, and their people liable to con- 
scription, on a par with all the other parts of 
Spain. 

Every student of history knows that the era of 
Spain's greatness was that of Los Reyes Catolicos, 
Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, when 
the wonderful discovery and opening up of a new 
world made her people dizzy with excitement, and 
seemed to promise steadily increasing power and 
influence. Everyone knows that these dreams 
were never realised; that, so far from remaining 
the greatest nation of the Western World, Spain 
has gradually sunk back into a condition that 
leaves her to-day outside of international politics; 
and that, with the loss of her last colonies over- 
seas, she appears to the superficial observer to be 
a dead or dying nation, no longer of any account 
among the peoples of Europe. 

But this is no fact; it is rather the baseless 
fancy of incompetent observers, to some extent 
acquiesced in, or at least not contradicted, by the 
proud Castilian, who cares not at all about the 
opinions of other nationalities, and who never 
takes the trouble to enlighten ignorance of the 
kind. True, there was an exhibition of some- 
thing like popular indignation when the people 
fancied they discovered a reference to Spain in 
the utterances of two leading English statesmen, 



6 Spanish Life 

during the war with America, and the feeling 
of soreness against England still to some extent 
exists; in fact, strange as it may appear, there is 
far less anger against America, which deprived 
Spain of her colonies, than against England, 
which looked on complacently, and with obvious 
sympathy for the aggressor. But all this is past, 
or passing. The Spaniards are a generous people, 
and no one forgets or forgives more easily or more 
entirely. Those who knew Madrid in the days 
of Isabel II. would not have imagined it possible 
that the Queen, who had been banished with so 
much general rejoicing, could, under any circum- 
stances, have received in the capital a warm 
greeting; in fact, it was for long thought inex- 
pedient to allow her to risk a popular demonstra- 
tion of quite another character. But when she 
came to visit her son, after the restoration of 
Alfonso XII., her sins, which were many, were 
forgiven her. It was, perhaps, remembered that 
in her youth she had been more sinned against 
than sinning; that she was muy Espanola, kind- 
hearted and gracious in manner, pitiful and 
courteous to all. Hence, so long as she did not 
remain, and did not in any way interfere in the 
government, the people were ready to receive her 
with acclamation, and were probably really glad 
to see her again without her camarilla, and with 
no power to injure the new order of things. 

No nation in the world is more innately demo- 
cratic than Spain — none, perhaps, so attached to 



Land and People 7 

monarchy ; but one lesson has been learned, 
probably alike by King and people — that abso- 
lutism is dead and buried beyond recall. The 
ruler of Spain, to-day and in the future, must 
represent the wishes of the people; and if at any 
time the two should once more come into sharp 
collision, it is not the united people of this once- 
divided country that would give way. For the 
rest, so long as the monarch reigns constitution- 
ally, and respects the rights and the desires of his 
people, there is absolutely nothing to fear from 
pretender or republican. At a recent political 
meeting in Madrid, for the first time, were seen 
democrats, republicans, and monarchists united; 
amidst a goodly quantity of somewhat "tall" 
talk, two notable remarks were received with 
acclamation by all parties: one was that Italy had 
found freedom, and had made herself into a united 
nationality, under a constitutional monarch; and 
the other, that between the Government of Eng- 
land and a republic there was no difference ex- 
cept in name — that in all Kurope there was no 
country so democratic or so absolutely free as 
England under her King, nor one in which the 
people so entirely governed themselves. 

Among the many mistaken ideas which obtain 
currency in England with regard to Spain, per- 
haps none is more common or more baseless than 
the fiction about Don Carlos and his chances of 
success. A certain small class of journalists from 
time to time write ridiculous articles in English 



8 Spanish Life 

papers and magazines about what they are pleased 
to call the <( legitimatist " cause, and announce its 
coining triumph in the Peninsula. No Spaniard 
takes the trouble to notice these remarkable pro- 
ductions of the fertile journalistic brain of a for- 
eigner. There are still, of course, people calling 
themselves Carlists— notably the Duke of Madrid 
and Don Jaime, but the cult, such as there is of 
it in Spain, is of the " Platonic" order only,— to 
use the Spanish description of it, "a little talk 
but no fight, "—and it may be classed with the 
vagaries of the amiable people in England who 
amuse themselves by wearing a white rose, and 
also call themselves " legitimatists," praying for 
the restoration of the Stuarts. 

The truth about the Carlist pretension is so 
little known in England that it may be well to 
state it. Spain has never been a land of the 
Salic Eaw; the story of her reigning queens — 
chief of all, Isabel la Cafolica, shows this. It 
was not until the time of Philip V., the first of 
the Bourbons, that this absolute monarch limited 
the succession to heirs male by " pragmatic sanc- 
tion " ; that is to say, by his own unsupported 
order. The Act in itself was irregular; it was 
never put before the Cortes, and the Council of 
Castile protested against it at the time. 

This Act, such as it was, was revoked by 
Charles IV. ; but the revocation was never pub- 
lished, the birth of sons making it immaterial. 
When, however, his son Ferdinand VII. was 



Land and People 9 

near his end, leaving only two daughters, he 
published his father's revocation of the Act of 
Philip V., and appointed his wife, Cristina, Re- 
gent during the minority of Isabel II., then only 
three years of age. 

At no time, then, in its history, has the Salic 
Law been in use in Spain: the irregular act of a 
despotic King was repudiated both by his grand- 
son and his great-grandson. Nothing, therefore, 
can be more ridiculous than the pretension of 
legitimacy on the part of a pretender whose party 
simply attempts to make an illegal innovation, in 
defiance of the legitimate kings and of the Coun- 
cil of Castile, a fundamental law of the monarchy. 
Carlism, the party of the Church against the 
nation, came into existence when, during the first 
years of Cristina's Regency, Mendizabal, the pa- 
triotic merchant of Cadiz and Iyondon, then First 
Minister of the Crown, carried out the dismem- 
berment of the religious orders, and the diversion 
of their enormous wealth to the use of the nation. 
Don Carlos, the brother of Ferdinand VII., 
thereupon declared himself the Defender of the 
Faith and the champion of the extreme clerical 
party. Hinc illcz lachrymcB, and two Carlist wars ! 

The position of the Church, or rather what was 
called the " Apostolic party," is intelligible 
enough, and it is easy also to understand why 
Carlism has been preached as a crusade to English 
Roman Catholics, who have been induced in both 
Carlist wars to provide the main part of the funds 



io Spanish Life 

which made them possible; but to call Don Carlos 
" the legitimate King" is a*ii absurd misnomer. 

For the rest, as regards Spain herself and the 
wishes of her people, it is perhaps enough to re- 
mark that if, after the expulsion of the Bourbons 
in 1868, at the time of the Revolution known as 
" L,a Gloriosa," when Prim had refused to think 
of a republic and declared himself once and 
always in favour of a monarchy, and the Crown 
of proud Spain went a-begging among the Courts 
of Europe, — if, at that time of her national need, 
Don Carlos was unable to come forward in his 
celebrated character of " legitimate Sovereign of 
the Spanish people," or to raise even two or three 
voices in his favour, what chance is he likely to 
have with a settled constitutional Government 
and the really legitimate Monarch on the throne ? 
The strongest chance he ever had of success was 
when the Basque Provinces were at one time dis- 
posed, it is said almost to a man, to take his side; 
but, in fact, the men of the mountain were fight- 
ing much more for the retention of their own 
fueros — for their immunity from conscription, 
among others — than for any love of Don Carlos 
himself. They would have liked a king and a 
little kingdom all of their own, and, above all, to 
have held their beloved rights against all the rest 
of Spain. 

All that, however, is over now. In all Spain 
no province has profited as have those of the 
North by the settled advance of the country. 



Land and People n 

Bilbao, once a small trading town, twice devas- 
tated during the terrible civil wars, has forged 
ahead in a manner perhaps only equalled by 
Liverpool in the days of its first growth, and is 
now more important and more populous than 
Barcelona itself; with its charming outlet of 
Portugalete, it is the most flourishing of Spanish 
ports, and is able to compare with any in Europe 
for its commerce and its rapid growth. Viscaya 
and Asturias want no more civil war, and the 
Apostolic party may look in vain for any more 
Carlist risings. More to be feared now are labour 
troubles, or the contamination of foreign anarchist 
doctrines; but in this case, the Church and the 
nation would be on the same side — that of order 
and progress. 

In attempting to understand the extremely com- 
plex character of the Spaniard as we know him, — 
that is to say, the Castilian, or rather the Madri- 
leno, — one has to take into account not only the 
divers races which go to make up the nationality 
as it is to-day, but something of the past history 
of this strangely interesting people. To go back 
to the days when Spain was a Roman province 
in a high state of civilisation : some of the greatest 
Romans known to fame were Spaniards — Quintil- 
ian, Martial, L,ucan, and the two Senecas. Tra- 
jan was the first Spaniard named Emperor, and 
the only one whose ashes were allowed to rest 
within the city walls; but the Spanish freedman 
of Augustus, Gaius Julius Hyginus, had been 



12 Spanish Life 

made the chief keeper of the Palatine Library, 
and Ballus, another Spaniard, had reached the 
consulship, and had been accorded the honour of a 
public triumph. Hadrian, again, was a Spaniard, 
and Marcus Aurelius a son of Cordoba. No 
wonder that Spain is proud to remember that, of 
the " eighty perfect golden years " which Gibbon 
declares to have been the happiest epoch in man- 
kind's history, no less than sixty were passed 
beneath the sceptre of her Caesars. 

The conquered had become conquerors; the 
intermarriage of Roman soldiers and settlers' with 
Spanish women modified the original race; the 
Iberians invaded the politics and the literature of 
their conquerors. St. Augustine mourned the 
odiosa canHo of Spanish children learning Latin, 
but the language of Rome itself was altered by its 
Iberian emperors and literati; the races, in fact 
amalgamated, and the Spaniard of to-day, to those 
who know him well, bears a strange resemblance 
to the Roman citizens with whom the letters of 
the Younger Pliny so charmingly make us fa- 
miliar. The dismemberment of the Roman Em- 
pire left Spain exposed to the inroads of the 
Northern barbarians, and led indirectly to the 
subsequent Moorish inrush; for the Jews, harassed 
by a severe penal code, hailed the Arabs as a 
kindred race; and with their slaves made common 
cause with the conquering hordes. 

The Goths seem to have been little more than 
armed settlers in the country. Marriage between 



Land and People 13 

them and the Iberians was forbidden by their 
laws, and the traces of their occupation are singu- 
larly few: not a single inscription or book of 
Gothic origin remains, and it seems doubtful if 
any trace of the language can be found in Cas- 
tilian or any of its dialects. It is strange, if this 
be true, that there should be so strong a belief in 
the influence of Gothic blood in the race. 

In all these wars and rumours of war the men 
of the hardy North remained practically uncon- 
quered. The last to submit to the Roman, the first 
to throw off the yoke of the Moor, the Basques 
and Asturians appear to be the representatives of 
the old inhabitants of Spain, who never settled 
down under the sway of the invader or acquiesced 
in foreign rule. Cicero mentions a Spanish tongue 
which was unintelligible to the Romans; was this 
Basque, which is equally so now to the rest of 
Spain, and which, if 3^ou believe the modern Cas- 
tilian, the devil himself has never been able to 
master ? 

The history of Spain is one to make the heart 
ache. Some evil influence, some malign destiny, 
seems ever to have brought disaster where her 
people looked for progress or happiness. Her 
golden age was just in the short epoch when Isa- 
bella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon reigned 
and ruled over the united kingdoms: both were 
patriotic, both clever, and absolutely at one in 
their policy. It is almost impossible to us who 
can look back on the long records, almost always 



1 4 Spanish Life 

sad and disastrous, not to doubt whether in giving 
a new world " to Castile and Aragon," Cristobal 
Colon did not impose a burden on the country of 
his adoption which she was unable to bear, and 
which became, in the hands of the successors of 
her muy Espanoles y ?nuy Catolicos kings, a curse 
instead of a blessing. Certain it is that Spain 
was not sufficiently advanced in political economy 
to understand or cope with the enormous changes 
which this opening up of a new world brought 
about. The sudden increase of wealth without 
labour, of reward for mere adventure, slew in its 
infancy any impulse there might have been to 
carry on the splendid manufactures and enlight- 
ened agriculture of the Moors; trade became a 
disgrace, and the fallacious idea that bringing 
gold and silver into a country could make it rich 
and prosperous ate like a canker into the indus- 
trial heart of the people, and with absolute cer- 
tainty threw them backward in the race of 
civilisation. 

Charles V. was the first evil genius of Spain ; 
thinking far more of his German and Italian pos- 
sessions than of the country of his mother, poor 
mad Juana, he exhausted the resources of Spain 
in his endless wars outside the country, and in- 
augurated her actual decline at a moment when, 
to the unthinking, she was at the height of her 
glory. The influence of the powerful nobility of 
the country had been completely broken by Isa- 
bella and Ferdinand, and the device of adopting 



Land and People 15 

the Burgundian fashion of keeping at the Court 
an immense crowd of nobles in so-called " wait- 
ing " on the Monarch flattered the national van- 
ity, while it ensured the absolute inefficacy of the 
class when it might have been useful in stemming 
the baueful absolutism of such lunatics as Felipe 
II. and the following Austrian monarchs, each 
becoming more and more effete and more and 
more mad. The very doubtful "glory" of the 
reign of the Catholic Kings in having driven out 
the Moors after eight centuries of conflict and 
effort, proved, in fact, no advantage to the country; 
but twenty thousand Christian captives were freed, 
and every reader of history must, for the moment, 
sympathise with the people who effected this free- 
ing of their country from a foreign yoke. 

Looking at the marvellous tracery of the church 
of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo, picked out by 
the actual chains broken off the miserable Chris- 
tian captives, and hanging there unrusted in the 
fine air and sunshine of the country for over four 
hundred years, one's heart beats in sympathy 
with the pride of the Spaniards in their Catholic 
Kings. But Toledo, alas! is dead; the centre of 
light and learning is mouldering in the very 
slough of ignorance, and Christianity compares 
badly enough with the rule of Arab and Jew. 

Nevertheless, it must be said that, had matters 
been left as Isabella and Ferdinand left them, 
Spain might have benefited by the example of her 
conquerors, as other countries have done, and as 



16 Spanish Life 

she herself did during the Roman occupation. 
Philip II. was too wise to expel the richest and 
most industrious of his subjects so long as they 
paid his taxes and, at least, professed to be Chris- 
tians. It was not until the reign of Philip III. 
and his disgraceful favourite Lerma, himself the 
most bigoted of Valencian " Christians," that, by 
the advice of Ribera, the Archbishop of Valencia, 
these industrious, thrifty, and harmless people 
were ruthlessly driven out. They had turned 
Valencia into a prolific garden, — even to-day it is 
called the huerta, — their silk manufactures were 
known and valued throughout the world; their 
industry and frugality were, in fact, their worst 
crimes; they were able to draw wealth from the 
sterile lands which " Christians" found wholly 
unproductive. "Since it is impossible to kill 
them all," said Ribera, the representative of 
Christ, he again and again urged on the King 
their expulsion. 

The nobles and landowners protested in vain. 
September 22, 1609, is one of the blackest — per- 
haps, in fact, the blackest — of all days in the disas- 
trous annals of Spain. The Marques de Caracena, 
Viceroy of Valencia, issued the terrible edict of 
expulsion. Six of the oldest and " most Chris- 
tian " Moriscos in each community of a hundred 
souls were to remain to teach their modes of cul- 
tivation and their industries, and only three days 
were allowed for the carrying out of this most 
wicked and suicidal law. In the following six 



Land and People 17 

months one hundred and fifty thousand Moors 
were hounded out of the land which their an- 
cestors had possessed and enriched for centuries. 
Murcia, Andalucia, Aragon, Catalufia, Castile, 
La Mancha, and Estremadura were next taken in 
hand. In these latter provinces the cruel blunder 
was all the worse, since the Moors had intermar- 
ried with the Iberian inhabitants, and had really 
embraced the Christian religion, so called. 

Half a million souls, according to Father Bleda, 
in his Defensio Fidei, were thrust out, with every 
aggravation of cruelty and robbery. No nation 
can commit crimes like this without suffering more 
than its victims. Spain has never to this day re- 
covered from the blow to her own prosperity, to her 
commerce, her manufactures, and her civilisation 
dealt by the narrow-minded and ignorant King, 
led by a despicable favourite, and the fanatical 
bigot, Ribera. With the Moors went almost all 
their arts and industries; immense tracts of coun- 
try became arid wastes: Castile and La Mancha 
barely raise crops every second year where the 
Moriscos reaped their teeming harvest, and Estre- 
madura from a smiling garden became a waste 
where wandering flocks of sheep and pigs now 
find a bare subsistence. Nor was this all. Sci- 
ence and learning were also driven out with the 
Arab and Jew; Cordoba, like Toledo, vanished, 
as the centre of intellectual life. In place of en- 
lightened agriculture, irrigation of the dry land, 
and the planting of trees, the peasant was taught 



18 Spanish Life 

to take for his example San Isidro, the patron 
saint of the labourer, who spent his days in prayer, 
and left his fields to plough and sow themselves; 
the forests were cut down for fuel, until the shade- 
less wastes became less and less productive, and 
the whole land on the elevated plains, which the 
Moors had irrigated and planted, became little 
better than a desert. 

It was not only in the mother country that 
frightful acts of bigotry and lust for wealth were 
enacted. In Peru the Spaniards found a splendid 
civilisation among the strange races of the Incas, 
a condition of order which many modern states 
might envy, a religion absolutely free from fetish 
worship, and a standard of morality which has 
never been surpassed. But they ruthlessly de- 
stroyed it all, desecrated the temples where the 
sun was worshipped only as a visible representa- 
tive of a God " of whom nothing could be known 
save by His works," as their tenet ran, and sub- 
stituted the religion which they represented as 
having been taught by Jesus of Nazareth; a re- 
ligion which looked for its chief power to the hor- 
rible Inquisition and its orgies called Autos dafef 

As regards the mysterious race of the Incas, 
who in comparison with the native Indians were 
almost white, and who possessed a high cultiva- 
tion, it is curious to note that during the late 
troubles in China records came to light in the 
Palace of Pekin showing that Chinese missionaries 
landed on the coast subsequently known as Peru, 



Land and People 19 

in ages long antecedent to the discovery of the 
country by the Spaniards, and established temples 
and schools there. No one who reads the minute 
accounts of the Incas from Garcilaso de la Vega 
— himself of the royal race on his mother's side, 
his father having been one of the Spanish adven- 
turers — can avoid the conclusion that the religion 
of the Incas, thus utterly destroyed by the Span- 
iards, was much more nearly that of Christ than 
the debased worship introduced in its place. The 
whole story of these "Children of the Sun," told 
by one of themselves afterwards in Cordoba, 
where he is always careful to keep on the right 
side of the Inquisition by pretending to be a 
" Christian after the manner of his father," is 
fascinatingly interesting as well as instructive. 

It is almost impossible to speak of the Spanish 
Inquisition and its baneful influence on the people 
without seeming to be carried away by prejudice 
or even bigotry, but it is equally impossible for 
the ordinary student of history to read, even in 
the pages of the " orthodox," the terrible repres- 
sion of its iron hand on all that was advancing in 
the nation; its writers, its singers, its men of 
science, wherever they dared to raise their voices 
in ever so faint a cry, ground down to one dead 
level of unthinking acquiescence, or driven forth 
from their native land, without ceasing to wonder 
at all at Spain's decadence from the moment she 
had handed herself over, bound hand and foot, to 
the Church. Wondering, rather, at her enormous 



20 Spanish Life 

inherent vitality, which at last, after so many 
centuries of spasmodic effort, has shaken off the 
incubus and regained liberty, or for the first time 
established it in the realms of religion, science, 
and general instruction. 

It matters little or nothing whether the Inqui- 
sition, with its secret spies, its closed doors, its 
mockery of justice, and its terrible background of 
smouldering Quemadero, was the instrument of the 
Church or of the King for the moment. Whether 
a religious or a political tyranny, it was at all times 
opposed to the very essence of freedom, and it was 
deliberately used, and would be again to-day if it 
were possible to restore it, to keep the people in 
a gross state of ignorance and superstition. That 
it was admirable as an organisation only shows it 
in a more baneful light, since it was used to crush 
out all progress. Its effect is well expressed in 
the old proverb: " Between the King and the In- 
quisition we must not open our lips. ' ' 

11 I would rather think I had ascended from 
an ape," said Huxley, in his celebrated answer 
to the Bishop of Oxford, " than that I had de- 
scended from a man who used great gifts to 
darken reason." It has been the object of the 
Inquisition to darken reason wherever it had the 
power, and it left the mass of the Spanish people, 
great and generous as they are by nature, for long 
a mere mob of inert animals, ready to amuse them- 
selves when their country was at its hour of 
greatest agony, debased by the sight of wholesale 



Land and People 21 

and cruel murders carried out by the priests of 
their religion in the name of Christ. 

Even to-day the Spaniard of the lower classes 
can scarcely understand that he can have any part 
or parcel in the government of his country. Long 
ages of misrule have made him hate all govern- 
ments alike: he imagines that all the evils he finds 
in the world of his own experience are the work 
of whoever happens to be the ruler for the time 
being; that it is possible for him to have any say 
in the matter never enters his head, and he votes, 
if he votes at all, as he is ordered to vote. He 
has been taught for ages past to believe whatever 
he has been told. His reason has been " offered 
as a sacrifice to God," if indeed he is aware that 
he possesses any. 

The danger of the thorough awakening may be 
that which broke out so wildly during Castelar's 
short and disastrous attempt at a republic: that 
when once he breaks away from the binding 
power of his old religion, he may have nothing 
better than atheism and anarchism to fall back 
upon. The days of the absolute reign of ignorance 
and superstition are over; but the people are 
deeply religious. Will the Church of Spain adapt 
itself to the new state of things, or will it see its 
people drift away from its pale altogether, as other 
nations have done ? This is the true clerical 
question which looms darkly before the Spain of 
to-day. 

To return, however. The Austrian kings of 



22 Spanish Life 

Spain had brought her only ruin. With the 
Bourbons it was hoped a better era had opened, 
but it was only exchanging one form of misrule 
for another. The kings existed for their own 
benefit and pleasure; the people existed to minis- 
ter to them and find funds for their extravagance. 
Each succeeding monarch was ruled by some up- 
start favourite, until the climax was reached when 
Godoy, the disgraceful Minister of Charles IV., 
and the open lover of his Queen, sold the country 
to Napoleon. Then indeed awoke the great heart 
of the nation, and Spain has the everlasting glory 
of having risen as one man against the French 
despot, and, by the help of England, stopped his 
mad career. Even then, under the base and con- 
temptible Ferdinand VII., she underwent the 
"Terror of 1824," the disastrous and unworthy 
regency of Cristina, and the still worse rule of her 
daughter, Isabel II., before she awoke politically 
as a nation, and, her innumerable parties forming 
as one, drove out the Queen, with her camarilla of 
priests and bleeding nuns, and at last achieved 
her freedom. 

For, whatever may be said of the last hundred 
years of Spain's history, it has been an advance, 
a continuous struggle for life and liberty. There 
had been fluctuating periods of progress. Charles 
III., a truly wise and patriotic monarch, the first 
since Ferdinand and Isabella, made extraordinary 
changes during his too short life. The population 
of the country rose a million and a half in the 



Land and People 23 

twenty-seven years of his reign, and the public 
revenue in like proportions under his enlightened 
Minister, Florida Blanca. No phase of the public 
welfare was neglected: savings banks, hospitals, 
asylums, free schools, rose up on all sides; va- 
grancy and mendicancy were sternly repressed; 
while men of science and skilled craftsmen were 
brought from foreign countries, and it seemed as 
if Spain had fairly started on her upward course. 
But he died before his time in 1788, and was fol- 
lowed by a son and grandson, who, with their 
wives, ruled by base favourites, dragged the 
honour of Spain in the dust. Still, the impulse 
had been given; there had been a break in the 
long story of misrule and misery; Mendizabal and 
Espartero scarcely did more than lighten the black 
canopy of cloud overhanging the country for a 
time; but at last came freedom, halting some- 
what, as must needs be, but no longer to be re- 
pressed or driven back by the baneful influence 
known asftalaad, intrigues arising in the imme- 
diate circle of the Court. 




CHAPTER II 



Types and traits 

FT is the fashion to-day to minimise the influence 
I of the Goths on the national characteristics 
of the Spaniard. We are told by some modern 
writers that their very existence is little more 
than a myth, and that the name of their last King 
Roderick, is all that is really known about them' 
The castle of Wamba, or at least the hill on 
which it stood, is still pointed out to the visitor 
in Toledo, perched high above the red torrent of 
the rushing Tagus; but little seems to be certainly 
known of this hardy Northern race which, for 
some three hundred years, occupied the country 
after the Romans had withdrawn their protecting 
legions. On the approach of the all-conquering 
Moor, many of the inhabitants of Spain took 
refuge m the inaccessible mountains of the north 
and were the ancestors of that invincible people 
known in Spain as ' ' los Montaneses," from whom 
almost all that is best in literature, as well as in 
business capacity, has sprung in later years. 

How much of the Celt-Iberian, or original in- 
habitant of the Peninsula, and how much of Gothic 

24 



Types and Traits 25 

or of Teuton blood runs in the veins of the people 
of the mountains, it is more than difficult now to 
determine. It had been impossible, despite laws 
and penalties, to prevent the intermingling of the 
races: all that we certainly know is that the in- 
habitants of Galicia, Asturias, Viscaya, Navarro, 
and Aragon have always exhibited the character- 
istics of a hardy, fighting, pushing race, as dis- 
tinguished from the Andaluces, the Valencianos, 
the Murcianos, and people of Granada, in whom 
the languid blood of a Southern people and the 
more marked trace of Arabic heritage are apparent. 

The Catalans would appear, again, to be de- 
scendants of the old Provencals, at one time settled 
on both sides of the Pyrenees, though forming, 
at that time, part of Spain. Their language is 
almost pure Provencal, and they differ, as history 
shows in a hundred ways, from the inhabitants of 
the rest of Spain. The Castilians, occupying the 
centre of the country, are what we know as 
" Spaniards," and may be taken to hold a middle 
place among these widely differing nationalities, 
modified by their contact with all. Their lan- 
guage is that of cultivated Spain. No one dreams 
of asking if you speak Spanish; it is always: 
Habla v Castellano ? And it is certainly a rem- 
nant of the old Roman, which, as we know, its 
emperors spoke " with a difference," albeit there 
are many traces of Arabic about it. 

Even at the present day, when Spain is rapidly 
becoming homogeneous, the people of the different 



26 Spanish Life 

provinces are almost as well known by their trades 
as by their special characteristics. A Gallego — 
really a native of Galicia — means, in the common 
parlance, a porter, a water-carrier, almost a beast 
of burden, and the Galicians are as well known 
for this purpose in Portugal as in Spain, great 
numbers finding ready employment in the former 
country, where manual labour is looked upon as 
impossible for a native. The men of the lowest 
class emigrate to more favoured provinces, since 
their own is too poor to support them ; they work 
hard, and return with their savings to their native 
hills. Their fellow-countrymen consider them 
boorish in manners, uneducated, and of a low 
class; but they are good-natured and docile, hard- 
working, temperate, and honest. " In your life," 
wrote the Duke of Wellington, " you never saw 
anything so bad as the Galicians; and yet they 
are the finest body of men and the best movers I 
have ever seen." There is a greater similarity 
between Galicia and Portugal than between the 
former and any other province of Spain. 

Although they lie so close together, Asturias 
differs widely from its sister province both in the 
character of its people and its scenery. The Ro- 
mans took two hundred years to subdue it, and 
the Moors never obtained a footing there. The 
Asturians are a hardy, independent race, proud 
of giving the title to the heir-apparent of the 
Spanish throne. The people of this province, 
like their neighbours the Basques, are handsome 




VALENCIANOS 



Types and Traits 27 

and robust in appearance; the}^ are always to be 
recognised in Madrid by their fresh appearance 
and excellent physique. For the most part they 
are to be found engaged in the fish trade, while 
their women, gorgeously dressed in their native 
costume by their employers, are the nurses of the 
upper classes. 

The ladies of Madrid do not think it ' ' good 
style" to bring up their own children, and the 
Asturian wet nurse is as much a part of the ordi- 
nary household as the coachman or mayordomo. 
They are singularly handsome, well-grown wo- 
men, and become great favourites in the houses 
of their employers; but, like their menkind, they 
go back to spend their savings among their be- 
loved hills. Many of these young women come 
to Madrid on the chance of finding situations, 
leaving their own babies behind to be fed by hand, 
or Heaven knows how; they bring with them a 
young puppy to act as substitute until the nurse- 
child is found, and may be seen in the registry 
offices waiting to be hired, with their little canine 
foster-children. It is said that the Asturian wo- 
men never part from the puppies that they have 
fed from their own breasts. 

The Basque Provinces are, perhaps, the best 
known to English travellers, since they generally 
enter Spain by that route, and those staying in 
the south of France are fond of running across to 
have at least a look at Spain, and to be able to say 
they have been there. The people pride them- 



28 Spanish Life 

selves on being " the oldest race in Europe," and 
are, no doubt, the direct descendants of the 
original and unconquered inhabitants of the 
Iberian Peninsula. In Guipuzcoa, the Basque 
may still be seen living in his flat-roofed stone 
house, of which he is sure to be proprietor, using 
a mattock in place of plough,, and leading his 
oxen — for bueycs are never driven — attached to 
one of the heavy, solid-wheeled carts by an elab- 
orately carved 3 T oke, covered with a sheepskin. 
He clings tenaciously to his unintelligible lan- 
guage, and is quite certain that he is superior to 
the whole human race. 

Th&fueros, or special rights, already spoken of, 
for which the Basques have fought so passionately 
for five hundred years, might possibly have been 
theirs for some time longer if they had not un- 
wisely thrown in their lot with the Carlist Pre- 
tender. They practically formed a republic within 
the monarchy; but in 1876, when the young 
Alfonso XII. finally conquered the provinces, all 
differences between them and the other parts of 
the kingdom were abolished, and they had to sub- 
mit to the abhorred conscription. With all the 
burning indignation which still makes some of 
them say, " I am not a Spaniard; I am a Basque," 
the extraordinary advance made in this part of 
Spain seems to show that the hereditary energy 
and talent of the people are on the side of national 
progress. 

The distinctive dress of the Basques is now 



Types and Traits 29 

almost a thing of the past; the bright kerchiefs 
of the women and the dark-blue cap (boina) of the 
men alone remain. The Viscayan boina has been 
lately introduced into the French army as the 
headgear of the Chasseurs and some other regi- 
ments. 

"Aragon is not ours; we ought to conquer it! " 
Isabel la Catolica is said to have remarked to her 
husband; and, indeed, the history of this little 
province is wonderfully interesting and amusing. 
It alone seems to have had the good sense always 
to secure its rights before it would vote supplies 
for the Austrian kings; whereas the other prov- 
inces usually gave their money without any 
security, except the word of the King, which was 
usually broken. Among the provisions of the 
fueros of the Aragonese was one that ran thus: 
' ' Que siempre que el rey quebrantose sus fueros, 
pudiessen eligir otro rey encora que sea pagano ' ' 
(If ever the King should infringe our fueros , we 
can elect another King, even though he might be 
a pagan), and the preamble of the election ran 
thus: " We, who are as good as you, and are more 
powerful than you (podemos mas que vos) elect 
you King in order that you may protect our rights 
and liberties, and also we elect one between us 
and you {eljusticia), who has more power than 
you: y si no, ?io ! " which may be taken to mean, 
" otherwise you are not our King." 

Somewhat of this spirit still abides in the Ara- 
gonese. The costume is one of the most pictur- 



30 Spanish Life 

esque in Spain. The men wear short black velvet 
breeches, open at the knees and slashed at the 
sides, adorned with rows of buttons, and showing 
white drawers underneath; alpargatas, or the 
plaited hempen sandals, which, with the stock- 
ings, are black; a black velvet jacket, with 
slashed and button-trimmed sleeves, and the 
gaily-coloured faja, or silk sash, worn over an 
elaborate shirt. 

In the old days, when one entered Spain by 
diligence from Bayonne to Pampeluna over the 
Pyrenees, one learned something of the beauty of 
the scenery and the healthy, hardy characteristics 
of the people, as one whirled along through the 
chestnut groves, over the leaping streams, always 
at full gallop, up hill and down dale, with a preci- 
pice on one side of the road and the overhanging 
mountains on the other. Below lay a fertile 
country with comfortable little homesteads and 
villages clustering round their church, and the like 
dotted the hillsides and the valleys wherever there 
seemed a foothold. As the diligence, with its 
team of ten or twelve mules, dashed through 
these villages or past the isolated farms, the peo- 
ple stood at their doors and shouted ; it was evi- 
dently the event of the day. The mules were 
changed every hour, or rather more, according 
to the road, and as the ascent became steeper 
more were added to their number; sometimes six 
or eight starting from Bayonne where twelve or 
fourteen were needed for the top of the Pass. At 



Types and Traits 31 

least half the journey was always made at night, 
and if there were a moon the scenery became 
magically beautiful; but, in any case, the stars, 
in that clear atmosphere, made it almost as bright 
as day, while a ruddy light streamed from the 
lamp over the driver's seat, far above the coupe, 
along the string of hurrying mules, as they dashed 
round precipitous corners, dangerous enough in 
broad daylight. If one of the animals chanced 
to fall, it was dragged by its companions to the 
bottom of the gorge, where it would get up, shake 
itself, and prepare to tear up the next ascent as if 
nothing had happened. 

A good idea could be formed of these hardy 
mountaineers in passing through their village 
homes. They are tall and good-looking, and 
seem to be simply overflowing with animal 
spirits. If it chanced to be on a Sunday after- 
noon, the priest, with his sotana tucked up round 
his waist, would be found playing the national 
game of pelota with his flock, using the blank 
wall of the church as a court. 

One is apt to forget that Old Castile is one of 
the provinces having a northern sea-board. The 
inhabitants of this borderland are, to judge by 
appearance, superior to the people of the plains, 
who certainly strike the casual observer as being 
dirty and somewhat dull. The Castilian and 
Aragonese, however, may be said to constitute 
the heart of the nation. L,eon and Kstremadura 
form a part of the same raised plateau, but their 



3 2 Spanish Life 

people are very different. In speaking of the 
national characteristics, one must be taken to 
mean, not by any means the Madrileno, but the 
countrymen, whose homes are not to be judged by 
the posadas, or inns,, which exist mainly for the 
muleteer and his animals, and are neither clean 
nor savoury. 

"All the forces of Europe would not be sufficient 
to subdue the Castiles— with the people against it," 
was Peterborough's remark, and our Iron Duke 
never despaired "while the country was with 
him." He bore with the generals and the Juntas 
of the upper classes, in spite of his indignation 
against them, and, " cheered by the people's sup- 
port," as Napier says, carried out his campaign 
of victory. 

The ancient qualities of which the Castilians 
are proud are gravedad, lealtad, y amor de Bios 
—"dignity, loyalty, and love of God." No won- 
der that when the nation arises, it carries a matter 
through. 

Estremadura, after the expulsion of the Moors, 
in whose days it was a fruitful garden, seems to 
have been forgotten by the rest of Spain; it be- 
came the pasturage for the wanderiug flocks of 
merino sheep, the direct descendants of the Be- 
douin herds, and of the pigs, which almost over- 
run it. Yet the remains of the Romans in 
Estremadura are the most interesting in Spain, 
and bear witness to the nourishing condition of 
the province in their day; moreover, Pizarro and 



Types and Traits 33 

Cortes owe their birth to this forgotten land. 
The inhabitants of the southern provinces of 
Spain differ wholly from those of Castile and the 
north — they have much more of the Eastern type; 
in fact, the Valenciano or the Murciano of the 
huerta, the well-watered soil which the Moors 
left in such a high state of cultivation, in manners 
and appearance are often little different from the 
Arab as we know him to-day. 

From the gay Andaluz we derive most of our 
ideas of the Spanish peasant ; but he is a complete 
contrast to the dignified Castilian or the brusque 
Montafiese. From this province, given over to 
song, dancing, and outdoor life, come — almost 
without exception — the bull-fighters, whose grace- 
ful carriage, full of power, and whose picturesque 
costume, make them remarkable wherever seen. 
Lively audacity is their special characteristic. 
Sal (salt) is their ideal ; we have no word which 
carries the same meaning. Smart repartee, grace, 
charm, all are expressed in the word Salada ; and 
Salero (literally, salt-cellar) is an expression met 
with in every second song one hears. 

Ole Salero ! Sin vanidad, 

Soy muy bonita, Soy muy Sala ! 

is the refrain of one of their most characteristic 
songs, La moza e rumbo, and may be taken as a 
sample: — 

listen, Salero ! without vanity, 
I am lovely — I am Salada ! 



34 Spanish Life 

During the Feria at Seville, the upper classes 
camp out in tents or huts, and the girls pass their 
time in singing and dancing, like the peasantry. 

The Valencians are very different, being slow, 
quiet, almost stupid to the eye of the stranger, 
extremely industrious, and wrapped up in their 
agricultural pursuits. They fully understand and 
appreciate the system of irrigation left by the 
Moors, which has made their province the most 
densely populated and the most prosperous in ap- 
pearance of all Spain. 

A curious survival exists in Valencia in the 
Tribunal de las Aguas, which is presided over by 
three of the oldest men in the city; it is a direct 
inheritance from the Moors, and from its verdict 
there is no appeal. 

Every Thursday the old men take their seats on 
a bench outside one of the doors of the cathedral, 
and to them come all those who have disputes 
about irrigation, marshalled by two beadles in 
strange, Old- World uniforms. When both sides 
have been heard, the old men put their heads to- 
gether under a cloak or mania, and agree upon 
their judgment. The covering is then with- 
drawn, and the decision is announced. On one 
occasion they decreed that a certain man whom 
they considered in fault was to pay a fine. The 
unwary litigant, thinking that his case had not 
been properly heard, began to try to address the 
judges in mitigation of the sentence. 

11 But, Senores — " he began. 



Types and Traits 35 

1 ' Pay another peseta for speaking ! ' ' solemnly 
said the spokesman of the elders. 

il Pero, Senores " 

1 ' Una peseta mas ! ' ' solemnly returned the 
judge; and at last, finding that each time he 
opened his lips cost him one more peseta, he soon 
gave up and retired. 

The Valencian costume for men consists of wide 
white cotton drawers to the knees, looking almost 
like petticoats, sandals of hemp, with gaiters left 
open between the knee and the ankle, a red sash, 
or faja, a short velvet jacket, and a handkerchief 
twisted turban-fashion round the head. The 
hidalgos wear the long cloak and wide sombrero 
common to all the country districts of Spain. 

In speaking of Spaniards and their character- 
istics, as I have already said, we have to take into 
account the presence of all these widely differing 
races under one crown, and to remember that to- 
day there is no hard-and-fast line among the 
cultivated classes: intermarriage has fused the 
conflicting elements, very much for the good of 
the country, and rapid intercommunication by 
rail and telegraph has brought all parts of the 
kingdom together, as they have never been be- 
fore. Education is now placed within reach of 
all, and even long-forgotten Kstremadura is 
brought to share in the impulse towards national 
life and commercial progress. Comte Paul Vasili, 
in his charming Lettres inedites to a young diplo- 
matist, first published in the pages of La Nouvelle 



36 Spanish Life 

Revue, gives such an exact picture of the Spanish 
people, of whom he had so wide an experience 
and such intimate knowledge, that I am tempted 
to quote it in full. 

" The famous phrase, A la disposicion de V. } has 
no meaning in the upper ranks, is a fiction with 
the bourgeoisie, but is simple truth in the mouth 
of the people. The pure-blooded Spaniard is the 
most hospitable, the most ready giver in the 
world. He offers with his whole heart, and is 
hurt when one does not accept what he offers. 
He does not pretend to know anything beyond 
his own country ... he exaggerates the 
dignity of humanity in his own person. . . . 
Even in asking alms of you he says: Hermanito, 
uiia limosna, por el amor de Dios. He does not 
beg; no, he asks, demands; and, miserable and in 
rags as he may be, he treats you as a brother — 
he does you the honour of accepting you as his 
equal. The Spaniard who has a ?iovia, a guitar, 
a cigarillo, and the knowledge that he has enough 
to pay for a seat at the bull-fight, possesses all 
that he can possibly need. He will eat a plateful 
of gazpacho or puchero, a sardine, half a roll of 
bread, and drink clear water as often as wine. 
Food is always of secondary importance : he ranks 
it after his ?iovia, after his cigarillo, after the bulls. 
Sleep ? He can sleep anywhere, even on the 
ground. Dress ? He has always his capa, and la 
capa todo lo tapa. The Spaniard is, above all 
things, rumboso ; that is to say, he has a large, 



Types and Traits 37 

generous, and sound heart. . . . The masses 
in Spain are perfectly contented, believing them- 
selves sincerely to be the most heroic of people. 
The Spaniard is naturally happy, because his 
wants are almost nil, and he has the fixed idea 
that kings — his own or those of other nations — 
are all, at least, his cousins." 

This is not the place to speak at large of the re- 
ligion of the people; but one remark one cannot 
fail to make, and that is, the place which the 
Virgin holds in the life and affections of the 
masses. The name of the Deity is rarely heard, 
except as an exclamation, and the Christ is spoken 
of rather as a familiar friend than as the Second 
Person in the Trinity; but the deep-seated love 
for the Virgin, and absolute belief in her power 
to help in all the joys and sorrows of life is one 
of the strongest characteristics of this naturally 
religious people. The names given at baptism 
are almost all hers. Dolores, Amparo, Pilar, 
Trinidad, Carmen, Concepcion, — abbreviated into 
Concha, — are, in full, Maria de Dolores, del Pilar, 
and so forth, and are found among men almost 
as much as among women. The idea of the ever- 
constant sympathy of the divine Mother appeals 
perhaps even more strongly to the man, carrying 
with it his worship of perfect womanhood, and 
awakening the natural chivalry of his nature. Be 
this as it may, the influence of the Virgin, and the 
sincerity of her worship in every stage of life, in all 
its dangers and in all its woes, is a religion in itself. 



CHAPTER III 



NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 



CERTAIN strong characteristics of the Span- 
ish people, with which the history of the 
world makes us well acquainted, are as marked 
in this hurrying age of railway and telegraph as 
ever they were in the past. One of the stupid re- 
marks one constantly hears made by the unthink- 
ing tourist is: " Spain is a country where nothing 
ever changes." This is as true of some of the 
national traits of character as it is false in the 
sense in which the speaker means it. He has 
probably picked it out of some handbook. 

Chief among these traits is dignity. The most 
casual visitor is impressed by it, sometimes very 
much to his annoyance, whether he finds it among 
the unlettered muleteers of Castile, the labourers 
of Valencia, or the present proprietor of some 
little 0\d-Wov\d pucdlo off the ordinary route. The 
mayoral of the diligence in the old times, the do- 
mestic servant of to-day, the sefiora who happens 
to sell you fish, or the sen or who mends your 
boots, all strike the same note — an absolute in- 
capacity for imagining that there can be any 

38 



National Characteristics 39 

inequality between themselves and any other class, 
however far removed from them by the possession 
of wealth or education. Wealth, in fact, counts 
for nothing in the way of social rank ; a poor 
hidalgo is exactly as much respected as a rich one, 
and he treats his tenants, his servants, all with 
whom he comes in contact, as brothers of the 
same rank in the sight of God as himself. 

Bajo el Rey ninguno is their proverb, and its 
signification, that " beneath the King all are 
equal/' is one that is shown daily in a hundred 
ways. The formula with which you are expected 
to tell the beggars — with whom, unfortunately, 
Spain is once more overrun — that you have no- 
thing for them, is a lesson in what someone has 
well called the "aristocratic democracy " of Spain: 
11 Pardon me, for the love of God, my brother," 
or the simple Perdone me usted, using precisely 
the same address as you would to a duke. It is 
no uncommon thing to hear two little ragged 
urchins, whose heads would not reach to one's 
elbow, disputing vigorously in the street with a 
Pero no, Senor, Pero si, Senor, as they bandy their 
arguments. 

English travellers are sometimes found grum- 
bling because the senor who keeps a wayside 
posada, or even a more pretentious inn in one of 
the towns, does not stand, hat in hand, bowing 
obsequiously to the wayfarer who deigns to use 
the accommodation provided. 

This is one of the things in which Spain, to her 



40 Spanish Life 

honour, is unchanged. The courtesy of her peo- 
ple, high or low, is ingrained, and if foreign — per- 
haps especially English and American — travellers 
do not always find it so, the fault may oftenest 
be laid to their own ignorance of what is ex- 
pected of them, and to what is looked upon as the 
absolute boorishness of their own manners. 

When a Spaniard goes into a shop where a wo- 
man is behind the counter, or even to a stall in 
the open market, he raises his hat in speaking to 
her as he would to the Duquesa de Tal y Fulano, 
and uses precisely the same form of address. The 
shopman lays himself at the feet of his lady cus- 
tomers — metaphorically only, fortunately, A los 
pies de V. , Senora ! — with a bow worthy of roy- 
alty. She hopes that " God may remain with his 
worship" as she bids him the ordinary Adios on 
going away, and he, with equal politeness, ex- 
presses a hope that she may " go in God's keep- 
ing," while he once more lays himself at the 
senora' s feet. All these amenities do not prevent 
a little bargaining, the one asking more than he 
means to take, apparently for the purpose of ap- 
pearing to give way perforce to the overmastering 
charms of his customer, who does not disdain to 
use either her fan or her eyes in the encounter. 
The old woman will bargain just as much, but 
always with the same politeness. When foreigners 
walk in and abruptly ask for what they want with 
an air of immense superiority, as is the custom 
in our country, they are not unnaturallj' looked 



National Characteristics 4 1 

upon as muy bruto, and at the best it is accounted 
for by their being rude heretics from abroad, and 
knowing no better. 

In Madrid and some of the large towns it is 
possible that the people have become accustomed 
to our apparent discourtes}^ just as in some places 
— Granada especially — spoiled by long intimacy 
with tourists, the beggars have become importu- 
nate, and to some extent impudent; but in places 
a little removed from such a condition of modern 
"civilisation," the effect produced by many a well- 
meaning but ordinary Saxon priding himself on 
his superiority, and without any intention of be- 
ing ill-bred or ill-mannered, is that of disgust and 
contemptuous annoyance. 

No Spaniard will put up with an overbearing 
or bullying manner, even though he may not 
understand the language in which it is expressed; 
it raises in him all the dormant pride and preju- 
dice which sleep beneath his own innate courtesy, 
and he probably treats the offending traveller with 
the profound contempt he feels for him, if with 
nothing worse. A little smiling and good-natured 
chaff when things go wrong, as they so often do 
in travelling, or when the leisurely expenditure 
of time, which is as natural to the Spaniard as it 
is irritating to our notions of how things ought to 
move, will go infinitely farther to set things right 
than black looks and a scolding tongue, even in 
an unknown language. 

When English people come back from Spain 



4 2 Spanish Life 

complaining of discourtesy, or what they choose 
to call insult, I know very well on whose head to 
fit the accusing cap, and it is always those people 
whose super-excellent opinion of themselves, and 
of their infinite importance at home, makes them 
certain of meeting with some such experience 
among a people to whom the mere expression " a 
snob " is by no means to be understood. 

That railway travelling in Spain calls for a great 
exercise of patience from those accustomed to Fly- 
ing Dutchmen and such-like expresses is quite 
true; though, by the way, many of the lines are 
in French hands, and served by French officials. 
It may safely be said, however, even at the present 
day, that those who are always in a hurry would 
do well to choose some other country for their 
holiday jaunt. A well-known English engineer, 
of French extraction, trying to get some business 
through in Madrid, once described himself as feel- 
ing " like a cat in hell, without claws." Perhaps 
the ignorance of the language, which constituted 
his clawless condition, was a fortunate circum- 
stance for him. But that was a good while ago, 
and Madrid moves more quickly now. 

Another characteristic of the Spaniard which 
awakens the respect and admiration of those who 
know enough of his past and present history to 
be aware of it is his courage : not in the least re- 
sembling the excitement and rush of mere con- 
flict, nor the theatrical display of what goes by 
the name of " glory " among some of his neigh- 



National Characteristics 43 

bours; but the cool courage, the invincible deter- 
mination which holds honour as the ideal to be 
followed all the same whether or not any person 
beyond the actor will know of it, and an unques- 
tioning obedience to discipline, which call forth 
the ungrudging admiration of Englishmen, proud 
as we are of such national stories as that of our 
own Little Revenge, The Wreck of the "Birken- 
head'' or of " plucky little Mafeking," amongst 
hundreds of others. Spaniards are rich in such 
inspiring memories, reaching from the earliest 
days of authentic history to the terrible episodes of 
the late war with America. The story of Cerve- 
ra's fleet at Santiago de Cuba is one to make the 
heart of any nation throb with pride in the midst 
of inevitable tears. 

Again and again in reading Spanish history do 
we come upon evidences of this nobility of courage 
and disinterested patriotism. It was the Spaniard 
Pescara who brushed the French army of observa- 
tion from the line of the Adda, and marched his 
own forces and the German troops to the relief of 
Pavia. All were unpaid, unclothed, unfed; yet 
when an appeal was made to the Spaniards, Hume 
tells us that they abandoned their own pay and 
offered their very shirts and cloaks to satisfy the 
Germans, and ' ' the French were beaten before 
the great battle was fought." They did precisely 
the same in the days of Mendizabal. 

Again, in the height of Barbarossa's power, 
when Charles V., hoisting the crucifix at his mast- 



44 Spanish Life 

head, led his crusading Spaniards against Goletta, 
and it fell, after a month's desperate siege, with- 
out pause or rest the troops, half dead with heat 
and thirst, pressed on to Tunis to liberate twenty 
thousand Christian captives. It was a splendid 
achievement, for the campaign was fought in the 
fierce heat of an African summer. Every barrel 
of biscuit, every butt of w 7 ater, had to be brought 
by sea from Sicily, and as there were no draught 
animals, the soldiers themselves dragged their 
guns and all their provisions. It is, as we well 
know, no light task to find six weeks' supply for 
thirty thousand men with all our modern advan- 
tages; but these Spaniards did it when already 
exhausted, half fed, burnt up by the fierce African 
sun, and in face of an enemy well supplied with 
artillery and ammunition. 

In the miserable time of Philip II., a garri- 
son of two hundred men held out for months 
against a Turkish army of twenty thousand men 
at Mers-el-Keber; and the same heroic story is 
repeated at Malta, when the enemy, after firing 
sixteen thousand cannon shots in one month 
against the Christian forts, abandoned the siege 
in despair. Meanwhile the unspeakable bigot, 
Philip, was wasting his time in processions, roga- 
tions, and fasts, for the relief of the town, while 
he stirred no finger to help it in any effective 
manner. 

These are stories by no means few and far be- 
tween; the whole history of the race is full of 



National Characteristics 45 

such. We read of one town and garrison of eight 
thousand souls, abandoned by their king, starved, 
and without clothes or ammunition. Reduced at 
last to two thousand naked men, they stood in the 
breach to be slain to a man by the conquering 
Turk. Conqueror only in name, after all ; for he 
who conquers is he who lives in history for a great 
action, and whose undaunted courage fires other 
souls long after he is at rest. 

"But all this is very ancient history, of the 
days of Spain's greatness; now she is a decadent 
nation," says the superficial observer. The col- 
umn of the Dos de Mayo on the Prado of Madrid, 
with its yearly memorial mass, shows whether that 
spirit is dead, or in danger of dying. The second 
of May is well called the ' ' Day of Independence ' ' ; 
it was, in fact, the inauguration of the War of 
Independence, in which Spain gained enough 
honour to satisfy the proudest of her sons. The 
French had entered Madrid under pretence of be- 
ing Spain's allies against Portugal, and Murat, 
once settled there to his own perfect satisfaction, 
made no secret of his master's intention to annex 
the whole peninsula. The imbecile King, Charles 
IV., had abdicated; his son, Ferdinand VII., was 
practically a captive in France. The country 
had, in fact, been sold to Napoleon, neither more 
nor less, by the infamous Godoy, favourite of the 
late King. 

A riot broke out among the people on discover- 
ing that the French were about to carry off the 



46 Spanish Life 

Spanish Infcmtes. The blood of some compara- 
tively innocent Frenchmen was shed, and the 
base governor and magistrates of Madrid allowed 
Murat to make his own terms, which were nothing 
less, in fact, than the dispersion of the troops, who 
were ordered to clear out of their barracks, and 
hand them over to the French. The two artillery 
officers, Daoiz and Valarde, with one infantry 
officer named Ruiz, and a few of the populace, re- 
fused, and, all unaided, attempted to hold the 
barracks of Monteleon against the French army 
of invasion! The end was certain; but little 
recked these Spaniards of the old type. Daoiz 
and Valarde were killed, the former murdered by 
French bayonets after being wounded, on the 
cannon by which they had stood alone against 
the whole power of the French troops; Ruiz also 
was shot. On the following day, Murat led out 
some scores of the patriots who had dared to op- 
pose him, and shot them on the spot of the Prado 
now sacred to their memory. Thus was the torch 
of the Peninsular War lighted. As one man the 
nation rose; the labourer armed himself with his 
agricultural implements, the workman with his 
tools; without leaders, nay, in defiance of those 
who should have led them, the people sprang to 
action, and, with England's help, the usurper was 
driven from the throne of France, and finally 
caged in St. Helena. But it is never forgotten 
that Spain — these two or three sons of hers pre- 
ferring honour to life — has the g!6ry of having 



National Characteristics 47 

been the first to oppose and check the man and 
the nation that aspired to tyrannise over Europe. 

It is not too much to say that the conduct of 
every individual in Cervera's fleet at Santiago de 
Cuba showed that the Spaniard's magnificent 
courage, his absolute devotion to duty, and his dis- 
regard of death are no whit less to-day than when 
those two thousand naked men stood in the breach 
to be slain in the name of their country's honour. 
The Oquendo, already a wreck, coming quietly 
out of her safe moorings in obedience to the insane 
orders of the Government in Madrid, steering her 
way with absolute coolness so as to clear the 
sunken Diamante, to face certain and hideous 
death, is a picture which can never fade from 
memory. It was said at the time by their enemies 
that there was not a man in the Spanish fleet that 
did not deserve the Victoria Cross; and this was 
all the more true because there was not even a 
forlorn hope: it was obedience to orders in the 
absolute certainty of death, and, what was harder 
still, with full knowledge of the utter useless- 
ness of the sacrifice. 

It is difficult to imagine that anyone can read 
the record of this heroic passage in the history of 
the Spain of to-day without a throb of admiration 
and pity. No wonder that the generous enemy 
went out of their way to do honour to the melan- 
choly remnant of heroes as they mounted the sides 
of the American ironclads, prisoners of war. 

Cervantes gave to the world a new adjective 



48 Spanish Life 

when he wrote his romance of The Ingenious Gen- 
tleman of La Mancha — a world in which the fili- 
busters are those of commerce, the pirates those 
of trade. When we English call an action "quix- 
otic," we do not exactly mean disapproval, but 
neither, certainly, do we intend admiration ; un- 
less it be that of other- worldliness which it is well 
to affect, however far we may be from practising 
it ourselves. It is, at best, something quite un- 
necessary, if acknowledged to be admirable in the 
abstract. The quixotic are rarely successful, and 
success is the measure by which everything is 
judged to-day. Be that as it may, the more in- 
timately one knows Spain, the more one becomes 
aware that what is with us an amiable quality of 
somewhat dubious value, is one of those which go 
to make up the Spaniard in every rank of life. 
His chivalry, his fine sense of honour, are nothing 
if not quixotic, as we understand the word; and 
just as in Scotland alone does one appreciate the 
characters in Sir Walter Scott's novels, so in Spain 
does one feel that, with due allowance for a spirit 
of kindly caricature, Don Ouijote de la Mancha 
is not only possible, but it is a type of character 
as living to-day as it was when the genius of Cer- 
vantes distilled and preserved for all time that 
most quaint, lovable, inconsequent, and chival- 
rous combination of qualities which constitute a 
Spanish gentleman. Among her writers, her 
thinkers, her workers — nay, even now and then 
among her politicians — we come upon traits which 



National Characteristics 49 

remind us vividly of the ingenious gentleman 
and perfect knight of romance. 

But this estimate of the Spanish character 
differs a good deal from the pictures drawn of it 
by the casual tourist; and it is scarcely surprising 
that it should be so. It has been well said that 
"the contrast between the ideal of honour and 
the practice of pecuniary corruption has always 
been a peculiar feature of Spain and her settle- 
ments." If we hear one thing oftener than an- 
other said of Spain, it is fault-finding with her 
public men; the evils of bribery, corruption, and 
self-seeking amongst what should be her states- 
men, and, above all, her Government employees, 
are pointed out, and by none more than by Span- 
iards themselves. There is a good deal of truth 
at the bottom of these charges; they are the 
melancholy legacy of the years of misrule and of 
the darkness through which the country has 
struggled on her difficult way. No one looks for 
the highest type of character in any country 
among its party politicians. The creed that good 
becomes evil if it is carried out under one regime, 
and evil good under another, is not calculated to 
raise the moral perception ; and it is only when a 
politician has convictions and principles which 
are superior to any office-holding, and will break 
with his party a hundred times sooner than stul- 
tify his own conscience, that he earns the respect 
of onlookers. There are, and have been, many 
such men among the politicians of Spain whose 



50 . Spanish Life 

names remain as watchwords with her people; 
but they have too often stood alone, and were not 
strong enough to leaven the mass and raise the 
whole standard of political integrity. Some of 
the highest and best men, moreover, have thrown 
down their tools and withdrawn from contact 
with a life which seemed to them tainted. But 
because Spain has done much in overthrowing 
her evil rulers and is struggling upwards towards 
the light, we expect wonders, and will not give 
time for what must always be a slow and difficult 
progress. 

In Spain, everyone is a politician. The school- 
boy, who with us would be thinking of nothing 
more serious than football, aspires to sum up the 
situation and give his opinion of the public men 
as if he were an ex-prime minister at least. These 
orators of the cafes and the street corners are de- 
lighted to find a foreigner on whom they can air 
their unfledged opinions, and the traveller who 
can speak or understand a few words of Spanish 
comes back with wonderful accounts of what " a 
Spaniard whom I met in the train told me." In 
any case, no one ever says as hard things of his 
countrymen as a Spaniard will say of those who 
do not belong to the particular little political 
clique which has the extreme honour of counting 
himself as one of its number. These cliques— for 
one cannot call them parties — are innumerable, 
called, for the most part, after one man, of whom 
no one has heard except his particular friends, 







1 H 




National Characteristics 5 1 

Un Senor muy conocido en su casa, sobre todo d la 
hora de comer, as their saying is: "A gentleman 
very well known in his own house, especially at 
dinner-time." 

Ford is answerable for many of the fixed ideas 
about Spain which it seems quite impossible to re- 
move. Much that may have been true in the long 
ago, when he wrote his incomparable Guide Book, 
has now passed away with the all-conquering 
years; but still all that he ever said is repeated 
in each new book with unfailing certainty. Much 
as he really loved Spain, it must be confessed that 
he now and then wrote of her with a venom and 
bitterness quite at variance with his usual manner 
of judging things. It is in great part due to him 
that so much misunderstanding exists as to the 
Spanish custom of "offering" what is not in- 
tended to be accepted. If that peculiarity ever 
existed — for my part, I have never met with it at 
any time — it does so no longer. When a Spaniard 
speaks of his house as that of " your Grace" (su 
casa de Usted), it is simply a figure of speech, 
which has no more special meaning than our own 
" I am delighted to see you," addressed to some 
one whose existence you had forgotten, and will 
forget again; but nothing can exceed the gener- 
ous hospitality often shown to perfect strangers 
in country districts where the accommodation for 
travellers is bad, when any real difficulty arises. 

It is customary, for instance, in travelling, 
when you open your luncheon-basket, to offer to 



52 Spanish Life 

share its contents with any strangers who may 
chance to be fellow-passengers. Naturally, it is 
merely a form of politeness, and, in an ordinary 
way, no one thinks of accepting it — everyone has 
his own provision, or is intending to lunch some- 
where on the way ; but it is by no means an empty 
form. If it should chance, by some accident, that 
you found yourself without — as has happened to 
me in a diligence journey which lasted twenty 
hours when it was intended only to occupy twelve 
— the Spanish fellow-travellers will certainly in- 
sist on your accepting their offer. Also, if they 
should be provided with fresh fruit — oranges, 
dates, or figs — and you are not, their offer to 
share is by no means made with the hope or ex- 
pectation that you will say Muchas gracias, the 
equivalent of " No, thank you." 

What is really difficult and embarrassing some- 
times is to avoid having pressed on your accept- 
ance some article which you may have admired, 
in your ignorance of the custom, which makes it 
the merest commonplace of the Spaniard to "place 
it at your disposition," or to say: " It is already 
the property of your Grace." Continued refusal 
sometimes gives offence. The custom of never 
doing to-day what you can quite easily put off 
till to-morrow is, unfortunately, still a common 
trait of Spanish character; but as the Spaniard is 
rapidly becoming an alert man of business, it is 
not likely that that will long remain one of the 
national characteristics. Time in old days seemed 



National Characteristics 53 

of very little value in a country where trade was 
looked upon as a disgrace, or at least as unfitting 
any one to enter the charmed circle of the first 
Grandeza; but that is of the past now in Spain, 
as in most countries. To be sure, it has not there 
become fashionable for ladies to keep bonnet-shops 
or dress-making establishments, nor to open after- 
noon tea-rooms or orchaterias, still less to set up 
as so-called financiers, as it has with us. How- 
ever, even that may come to pass in the struggle 
for 'Whigh life," of which some of the Spanish 
writers complain so bitterly. Imagination abso- 
lutely refuses, however, to see the Spanish woman 
of rank in such surroundings. 

For the rest, the Spanish woman, wherever you 
meet her, and in whatever rank of society, is de- 
vout, naturally kind-hearted and sympathetic, 
polite, and entirely unaffected; a good mother, 
sister, daughter; hard-working and frugal, if she 
be of the lower class; fond above all things of 
gossip, and of what passes for conversation; light- 
hearted, full of fun and harmless mischief; born 
a coquette, but only with that kind of coquetry 
which is inseparable from unspoiled sex, with no 
taint of sordidness about it; and, before all things, 
absolutely free from affectation. Their own ex- 
pression, muy simpatica, gives better than any 
other the charm of the Spanish woman, whether 
young or old, gentle or simple. 

It was the possession of all these qualities in a 
high degree by Dona Isabel II. that covered the 



54 



Spanish Life 



multitude of her sins, and made all who came 
within her influence speak gently of her, and 
think more of excuses than of blame. It is these 
qualities which give so much popularity to her 
daughter, the Infanta Isabel, who, like her 
mother, is above all things muy Espanola. That 
the Spanish woman is passionate, goes without 
saying ; one only has to watch the quick flash of 
her eye — "throwing out sparks," as their own 
expression may be translated — to be aware of that. 
While the eyes of the men are for the most part 
languid, only occasionally flashing forth, those 
of the women are rarely quiet for a moment ; they 
sparkle, they languish, they flame — a whole 
gamut of expression in one moment of time; and 
it must be confessed that they look upon man as 
their natural prey. 




CHAPTER IV 



SPANISH SOCIKTY 



THERE is something specially charming about 
Spanish societ3% its freedom from formality, 
the genuine pleasure and hospitality with which 
each guest is received, and the extreme simplicity 
of the entertainment. In speaking, however, of 
society in Madrid and other modern towns, it must 
be remembered that the old manners and customs 
are to a great extent being modified and assimi- 
lated with those of the other Continental cities. 
A great number of the Spanish nobility spend the 
season in Paris or in L,ondon as regularly as any 
of the fashionable people in France or England. 
There is no country life in Spain, as we under- 
stand the word; those of the upper ten thousand 
who have castles or great houses in the provinces 
rarely visit them, and still more rarely entertain 
there. A hunting or a shooting party at one of 
these is quite an event; so when the great people 
leave Madrid, it is generally to enter into Iyondon 
or Paris society, and, naturally, when they are at 
home they to a great extent retain cosmopolitan 
customs. At the foreign legations or ministries 

55 



56 Spanish Life 

also, society loses much of its specially Spanish 
character. 

The word tertulia simply means a circle or 
group in society; but it has come to signify a 
species of "At Home" much more informal 
than anything we have in the way of evening 
entertainment. The tertulia of a particular lady 
means the group of friends who are in the habit 
of frequenting her drawing-room. The Salon del 
Prado is the general meeting-place of all who feel 
more inclined for al fresco entertainment than for 
close rooms, and the different groups of friends 
meeting there draw their chairs together in small 
circles, and thus hold their tertulia. The old 
Countess of Monti jo was so much given to open- 
handed hospitality, and it was so easy for any 
English person to obtain an introduction to her 
tertulia, that her daughter, the Empress Eugenie, 
used to call it the Prado cubierto — "only the Prado 
with a roof on." It is not customary for any- 
thing but the very lightest of refreshments to be 
offered at the ordinary tertulia, and this is one of 
its great charms, for little or no expense is in- 
curred, and those who are not rich can still wel- 
come their friends as often as they like without 
any of the terrific preparations for the entertain- 
ment which make it a burden and a bore, and 
without a rueful glance at the weekly bill after- 
wards. Occasionally, chocolate is handed round, 
and any amount of tumblers of cold water. The 
chocolate is served in small coffee-cups, and is of 



Spanish Society 57 

the consistency of oatmeal porridge; but it is de- 
licious all the same, very light and well frothed 
up. It is " eaten " by dipping little finger-rusks 
or sponge-chips into the mixture, and you are ex- 
tremely glad of the glass of cold water after it. 
This is, however, rather an exception; lemonade, 
azucarillas and water, or tea served in a separate 
room about twelve o'clock, is more usual. The 
azucarilla is a confection not unlike ' ' Edinburgh 
rock," but more porous and of the nature of a 
meringue. You stir the water with it, when it 
instantly dissolves, flavouring the water with 
vanilla, lemon, or orange, as well as sugar. 
Sometimes you are offered meringues, which you 
eat first, and then drink the water. 

I have a very perfect recollection of my first 
tertulia in Madrid, when I was a very young girl. 
We had been asked to go quite early, as we were 
the strangers of the evening. Between seventy 
and eighty guests dropped in, the ladies chiefly 
in morning dress, as we understand the word. A 
Spanish lady never rises to receive a gentleman ; 
but when any ladies entered the large drawing- 
room where we were all seated, every one rose and 
stood while the new arrivals made the circuit of 
the room, shaking hands with their friends or 
kissing them on both cheeks, and giving a some- 
what undignified little nod to those whom they 
did not know. The first time every one rose I 
thought we were going to sing a hymn, or take 
part in some ceremony; but as it had to be 



58 Spanish Life 

repeated each time a lady entered the room, I be- 
gan to wish they would all come at once. As soon 
as the dancing began, however, this ceremony 
was discontinued. When you are introduced to a 
partner, the first thing he does is to inquire j^our 
Christian name; from that time forth he addresses 
you by it, as if he had known you from infancy, 
and in speaking to him you are expected to use 
his surname alone. If there be more than one 
brother, you address the younger one as " Ar- 
turo," " Ramon," or whatever his Christian name 
may be. The diminutives are, however, almost 
always used — Pacquita, Juanito, etc., in place of 
Francisca or Juan. Even the middle-aged and 
old ladies are always spoken to by their Christian 
names, and it is quite common to hear a child of 
six addressing a lady who is probably a grand- 
mother as " Luisa" or " Mariquita." 

Between the dances the pauses were unusually 
long, but they were never spent by the ladies sit- 
ting in rows round the walls, while the men 
blocked up the doorways and looked bored. 
There were no " flirting corners," and sitting out 
on the stairs a deux would have been a compromiso. 
The whole company broke up into little knots and 
circles, the chairs, which had been pushed into 
corners or an ante-room, were fetched out, and 
the men, without any sort of shyness, generally 
seated themselves in front of the ladies, and kept 
up a perfectly wild hubbub of conversation until 
the music for the next dance struck up. Dowagers 



Spanish Society 59 

and duenas were few; they sat in the same spot 
all the evening, and asked each other what rent 
they paid, how many chimeneas (fireplaces) they 
had, whether they burned wood or coal, and la- 
mented over the price of both. They reminded 
one irresistibly of the " two crumbly old women" 
in Kavanagh ' ' who talked about moths, and cheap 
furniture, and the best cure for rheumatism." 

The dances were the same as ours, with some 
small differences : the rigodon is a variation of the 
quadrille, and the lancers are slightly curtailed. 
There was a decided fancy for the polka and a 
species of mazurka, which I remembered having 
learned from a dancing-master in the dawn of life, 
under some strange and forgotten name. Span- 
iards dance divinely — nothing less. They waltz 
as few other men do, a very poetry of motion, an 
abandonment of enjoyment, as if their soul were 
in it, especially if the music be somewhat languid. 
This is especially the case with the artillery 
officers, who are great favourites in society, and 
belong exclusively to the upper ranks. 

I have described this tertulia at length because 
it was a typical one of many. The cotillon was 
a great favourite, and generally closed the even- 
ing. I always had an idea that one cause of its 
popularity was the extended opportunities it gave 
for a couple who found each other's company 
pleasant to enjoy it without much interference. 
It rather made up for the loss of the staircase and 
the window-seats, or balconies, dear to English 



60 Spanish Life 

dancers. The rooms are generally kept in a 
stifling state of heat, a thick curtain always hang- 
ing over the door, and never an open window or 
any kind of ventilation; this, however, does not 
inconvenience the Spaniard in the least. It is 
usual to smoke during the intervals of the dances 
— cigarettes as a rule; but I have often known a 
man to lay his cigar on the edge of a table, and 
give it a whiff between the rounds of a valse to 
keep it going. 

This, however, is the Spanish tertulia. You 
are "offered the house " once and for always, and 
told the evenings on which your hostess "re- 
ceives," generally once, sometimes many more 
times in the week: then you drop in, without 
further invitation, whenever you feel inclined; 
after the opera, or on the days when there is no 
opera, or on your way from the theatre, or at any 
hour. This sort of visiting puts an end to what 
we, by courtesy, call " morning calls." There is 
always conversation to any amount, generally 
cards, music, and, when there are sufficient young 
people, a dance. 

There is no exclusiveness and no caste about 
Spanish society; all the houses are open, and the 
guests are always welcome. There are, of course, 
the houses of the nobility, and there are many 
grades in this Grandeza, some being of very re- 
cent creation, others of the uncontaminated sa?igre 
azul ; but there is no hard-and-fast line. The 
successful politician or the popular writer has the 



Spanish Society 61 



entree anywhere, and there is no difficulty about 
going into the very best of the Court society, if 
one has friends in that terlulia. One guest asks 
permission to present his or her friend, the per- 
mission is courteously granted, and the thing is 
done. Poets and dramatists are in great request 
in Madrid society. It is the custom to ask them 
to recite their own compositions, and as almost 
every Spaniard is a poet, whatever else he may 
be, there is no lack of entertainment. All the 
popular authors — Campoamor, Nunez de Arce, 
Pelayo, Valera, and many others — may thus be 
heard; but the paid performer (so common in 
London drawing-rooms) of music, light drama, 
or poetical recitation, is probably absolutely un- 
known in Madrid society. 

During the season balls are given occasionally 
at the Palace, and at the houses of the great no- 
bility, the Fernan-Nunez, the Romana, the Medi- 
naceli, and others, whose names are as well known 
in Paris and London as in Madrid. Dinner-parties 
are also becoming much more common in private 
houses than they were before the Restoration, and 
as for public dinners, they are so frequent that 
they bid fair to become of the same importance as 
the like institution in England. Costume balls, 
dances, dinners, and evening entertainments 
among the corps diplomatique abound. Everyone 
in Madrid has a box or stall at the Teatro Real, 
or opera-house, and many ladies make a practice 
of "receiving" in their palcos; and in the en- 



62 Spanish Life 

trance-hall, after the performance is over, an hour 
may be spent, while ostensibly waiting for car- 
riages, in conversation, gossip, mild flirtation, and 
generally making one's self agreeable among the 
groups all engaged in the same amusement. 
Almost everyone, also, whatever his means may 
be, has an abono at one or other of the numerous 
theatres, sometimes at more than one; and if it 
be a box, the subscribers take friends with them, 
or receive visits there. It is a common thing, 
either in the opera-house or in the theatres, for a 
couple of friends to join in the abono ; in this case 
it is arranged on which nights the whole box or 
the two or three stalls shall be the property of 
each in turn. Besides paying for the seats, there 
is always a separate charge each night made for 
the entrada — in the Teatro Real it is a peseta and 
a half, in the others one peseta. By this arrange- 
ment anyone can enter the theatre by paying the 
entrada, and take chance of finding friends there, 
frequently spending an hour or so going from one 
box to another. All this gives the theatre more 
the air of being an immense "At Home" than 
what we are accustomed to in England. The in- 
tervals between the acts are very long, and, as all 
the men smoke, somewhat trying. 

Spanish women are great dressers, and the cos- 
tumes seen at the race-meetings at the Hippo- 
drome, and in the Parque, are elaborately French, 
and sometimes startling. The upper middle class 
go to Santander, Biarritz, or one of the other 



Spanish Society 63 

fashionable watering-places, and it is said of the 
ladies that they only stop as many days as they 
can sport new costumes. If they go for a fort- 
night they must have fifteen absolutely new 
dresses, as they would never think of putting one 
on a second time. They take with them immense 
trunks, such as we generally associate with Ameri- 
can travellers; these are called mundos (worlds) 
— a name which one feels certain was given by 
the suffering man who is expected to look after 
them. 

There are many little details in Spanish life, 
even of the upper classes, which strike one as 
odd. One, for instance, is the perfect sangfroid 
with which they pick their teeth in public; but 
so little is this considered, as with us, a breach of 
good manners, that the dinner-tables are supplied 
with dainty little ornaments filled with tooth- 
picks, and these are handed round to the guests 
by the waiters towards the close of the meal. Nor 
is it an unknown thing for a Spanish, lady to spit. 
I have seen it done out of a carriage window in 
the fashionable drive without any hesitation. At 
the same time, as one of the great charms of a 
Spanish woman is the total absence in her of any- 
thing savouring of affectation, one would far 
sooner overlook customs that are unknown in 
polite society with us than have them lose their 
own characteristics in an attempt to imitate the 
social peculiarities of other nations that have 
incorporated the ominous word "snob" in their 



64 Spanish Life 

vocabularies. It has no equivalent in the lan- 
guage of Castile, and it is to be hoped will never 
be borrowed. Nevertheless, a recent Spanish 
writer laments the fact that in the race for "el 
high life" his fellow-countrywomen "are not 
ashamed to drink whisky!" We have yet to 
learn that whisky-drinking among women is an 
element of good style in any class of English 
society. The idea that Spanish ladies were in 
the habit of smoking in past times is a mistake. 
If they do so now it is an instance of the race for 
" el high life," of which the writer quoted above 
complains. 

In imitation of foreign customs, many of the 
ladies in Madrid and the more modern cities have 
established their "day" for afternoon visitors. 
After all, this is but the Spanish tertulia at a dif- 
ferent hour, but if it should ever supersede the 
real evening tertulia it will be a thousand pities; 
it would be far more sensible if we were to adopt 
the Spanish custom, rather than that they should 
follow ours. In the evening, the hour varying, 
of course, with the time of year, all Madrid goes 
to drive, ride, or walk in the Buen Retiro, now 
called the Parque de Madrid. It is beautifully 
laid out, with wide, well-kept roads and well- 
cared-for gardens; it has quite superseded the 
Paseo de la Fuente Castellano, which used to be 
the " Ladies' Mile" of Madrid. 

Madrid is a city of which one hears the most 
contradictory accounts. The mere traveller not 



Spanish Society 65 

uncommonly pronounces it "disappointing, un- 
interesting, less foreign than most Continental 
capitals," — "everything to be seen at best second- 
rate France," etc., etc. The Museo, of course, 
must be admired, — even the most ignorant know 
that to contemn that is to write themselves down 
as Philistines; — but for the rest, they confess them- 
selves glad to escape, after two or three days spent 
in La Corte, to what they fancy will prove more 
interesting towns, or, at any rate, to something 
which they hope will be more characteristic. But 
those who settle in Madrid, or know it well, win- 
ter and summer, and have friends among its 
hospitable people, come to love it, one might 
almost say, strangely, because it is not the love 
that springs from habit or mere familiarity, but 
something much warmer and more personal. One 
charm it has, which is felt while there and pleas- 
antly remembered in absence — its much-maligned 
climate. The position of Madrid at the apex of 
a high table-land, two thousand one hundred and 
sixty feet above the level of the sea, with its wide 
expanse of plain on every hand but that on which 
the Guadarramas break the horizon with their 
rugged, often snow-capped, peaks, naturally ex- 
poses it to rapid changes of temperature; that is 
to say, that if the snow is still lying on the Sierra, 
and the wind should chance to blow from that 
direction on Madrid, which is steeped in sun- 
shine winter and summer for far the greater part 
of the year, there is nothing to break its course, 



66 Spanish Life 

and naturally, a Madrileno, crossing from the 
sheltered corner, where he has been ' ' taking the 
sun," to the shady side of the street and the full 
force of the chilly blast, will be very likely to 
"catch an air," as the Spaniard expresses it. 
But that tan sutil aire de Madrid, which Ford 
seems to have discovered, and which every guide- 
book and slip-shod itinerary has ever since quoted, 
might very well now be allowed to find a place in 
the limbo of exploded myths; it has done far more 
than its duty in terrifying visitors quite need- 
lessly. That pulmonia fulminante (acute pneu- 
monia) is a very common disease among the men 
of Madrid, there is no doubt, and in the days when 
Ford wrote, they were no doubt immediately 
bled, and so hastened on their way out of this 
troublesome world by the doctors; but one has 
not very far to seek for the cause of this scourge 
when one notices the habits of the Madrileno. 
In the first place he hates nothing quite so much 
as fresh air, and the cafes, clubs, taverns, and 
places where he resorts are kept in such a state 
of heated stuffiness that it seems scarcely an 
exaggeration to say that the air could be cut out 
in junks, like pieces of cake. If he travel by 
train, all windows must be kept closely shut, 
while he smokes all the time. When, at last, it 
is necessary to brave the outer air in order to 
reach home, he, carefully and before leaving the 
vitiated atmosphere he has been breathing, en- 
velops himself in his cloak, throwing the heavy 



Spanish Society 67 

cape, generally lined with velvet or plush, across 
his mouth and nose, barely leaving his eyes 
visible; he thus has three or four folds of cloth 
and velvet as a respirator. It often happens that 
at the corner of some street the long arm of the 
icy " Guadarrama " reaches him; a sudden gust 
of wind plucks off his respirator, and the mischief 
is done. But should he reach the safe closeness 
of his own house, he has certainly done his level 
best to charge his lungs with unwholesome and 
contaminated air. 

You have only to see the women on the coldest 
day in winter with nothing over their heads but 
a silk or lace mantilla, or a mere velo of net, and 
the working-women with nothing but their mag- 
nificent hair, or, at most, a kerchief, to be certain 
that it is not the " air " that is to blame. I have 
seen the women going about Madrid in winter, 
both by day and night, when the men were 
muffled to the eyes, with thicker dresses, of 
course, and perhaps a fur cape, but no sort of 
wrap about their head or throat; and pulmonia is 
comparatively unknown among women. To Eng- 
lish people, accustomed to plenty of fresh air and 
water, Madrid has never been an unhealthy place, 
and it is extremely probable that one of these 
days our doctors will be sending their consump- 
tive patients there for the winter. They might 
easily do worse. 

One of the coldest winters I remember in Ma- 
drid, a young Englishman came out with a letter 



68 Spanish Life 

of introduction from friends. He looked as if he 
had not many weeks to live, and in truth he was 
condemned by his doctors, and his hours were 
numbered. He was a Yorkshireman by birth, 
but had some }^ears past developed seeds of con- 
sumption. He had been sent year after year to 
Madeira and other of the old resorts, having been 
told that a winter in England would certainly 
finish him. Finally, he made his doctors tell 
him the truth: it was that he had not many 
months, perhaps not many weeks, to live. 

" Very well, then," he replied, " there is no use 
worrying any more about my health. I shall do 
my best to enjoy the little time I may have left." 
He threw all his medicines and remedies out of the 
window, he looked out for the most unhealthy 
place he could find, where he would be most cer- 
tain of never meeting another consumptive pa- 
tient; and in the course of the search he came 
across the well-worn chestnut about the air of 
Madrid. " That is the place for me," he ex- 
claimed; ''only strong and healthy people can 
live there. At any rate, so long as I do live, I 
shall be amongst sound lungs, and shall see no 
more fellow-sufferers. The aire tan sutil will kill 
me, and that will be the end of the matter." So 
far from killing him, the fine champagne-like air 
of Madrid went as near curing him as was possible 
for a man with only one lung. He took no pre- 
cautions, never wrapped up, went out at night as 
well as by day, and when he died, fourteen years 



Spanish Society 69 

later, it was not of consumption. He used to 
come to Madrid for the winter to escape the damp 
of England, and revelled in the warmth and fresh- 
ness of that sun-steeped air. 

The climate of Madrid has sensibly altered 
since I have known it, and will continue to do so 
as vegetation increases and trees spring up and 
grow to perfection within and around it. In the 
old times, before the splendid service of water of 
the IyOzoya Canal was in common use, the air was 
so dry as to make one's skin uncomfortable, and 
one's hair to break off into pieces like tinder under 
the brush; there was also a constant thickening 
in the throat, causing slight discomfort, and a 
penetrating, impalpable dust which nothing ever 
laid, and which formed a veritable cloud reaching 
far above the heads of the promenaders in the 
Salon del Prado. A very short time changed all 
this. Twice a day the streets were watered with 
far-reaching hose, a constant stream ran about 
the stems of the trees in the Prado, gardens were 
planted and constantly watered, and while the 
hitherto barren, dust-laden places began to blos- 
som as 'the rose, the air itself became softer, less 
trying, and, perhaps, there is rather more uncer- 
tainty about the weather, or at any rate a greater 
rainfall. At one time there were but two rainy 
seasons — spring and autumn — and never a cloud 
in between. For about three days clouds would 
be gathering gradually in the sky, beginning 
with one literally ' ' no bigger than a man's hand." 



70 Spanish Life 

Whenever there was a cloud, you might be cer- 
tain of rain, past or to come. Then one day, 
when there was no longer any blue to be seen, the 
heavens opened and the rain came down. There 
could be no mistake about it. When it rains or 
thunders in Madrid, it tries to get it all over as 
quickly as possible. There is nothing like doing 
a thing well when you are about it, and Madrid 
thoroughly understands this matter of rain. It 
never ceases, never tempts people to go out and 
then drowns them. No, if you go out, it is with 
a thorough understanding of what you are under- 
taking ; and if you are disposed to be critical about 
anything in the municipal management of La 
Corte now, try to imagine what it was when the 
water from the roofs was carried out in wide pipes 
a few feet from the edge, and allowed to pour on 
the heads of the defenceless foot-passengers, or 
almost to break in the roof of carriage or cab 
which had to pass under them. This is the time 
to learn why the bridges over the Manzanares 
are so wide and so strong; not one whit too much 
of either, if they are to withstand the mighty on- 
rush. We used to go off to the Casa de Campo 
the moment the rain was over, for the sake of see- 
ing Madrid as one never sees it at other times — 
its magnificent Palace crowning the steep bluff, 
round which a mighty river is rushing to the sea. 
The rain lasts a week, a fortnight, or even 
more, and then the sky takes at least three days 
to clear, during which it resembles our English 



Spanish Society 71 

white-flecked blue, or its hurrying grey masses, 
and the cloud-shadows fly over the wide land- 
scape, now all suddenly changed to verdure, and 
lie on the distant sierra, giving an unwonted 
charm to the scene. The Casa de Campo, the 
Florida, and all green spots become carpeted with 
wild flowers; the trees seem to have put on new 
leafage, so fresh are they and free from the over- 
loading of dust. And then, gradually, the Man- 
zanares repents him of his anger and haste; no 
more foam is dashing against the piers of the 
bridges, no more crested waves are hurrying be- 
fore the wind; he sinks gently and slowly back 
to his accustomed lounging pace, " taking the 
sun" with lazy ease once more; and the washer- 
women come down and resume their labours under 
the plane trees; and there is no more thought of 
rain for many a week, perhaps month, to come; 
and that strangely deep, impenetrable vault of a 
blue unknown elsewhere spreads its canopy over 
a clean, rain-washed city. 

The Parque de Madrid, which lies high above 
the Prado, affords a striking view of the country 
on all sides. An Englishman of wide Continental 
experience, describing this prospect, says he was 
1 ' more than recompensed by the sudden appari- 
tion, through an opening between the houses, of 
the exquisite campagna that surrounds Madrid. 
. . . Compared with that of Rome, it seemed 
to me clearer, and more extensive, while the hue 
of the atmosphere that overspread it was of a rich 



72 Spanish Life 

purple." I have quoted these remarks because 
it is so rare for English visitors, accustomed to 
the lush green of our own meadows and woods, 
to find anything to admire in what is too often 
called the " mangy," or at best the " arid," sur- 
roundings of the capital of Spain. This, how- 
ever, was written in September, and there had 
been heavy rains; after the crops are gathered 
and before the autumn rains come on, the prospect 
is scarcely so much to be admired. That the 
view is extensive, no one can deny ; there is un- 
broken horizon, except where the rugged peaks 
of the Guadarramas pierce the sky, and the at- 
mospheric effects are often marvellously beauti- 
ful, especially when the swift shadows of clouds 
pass over the wide landscape, or lie upon the 
"everlasting hills." 

For myself, this vast expanse, with the sense of 
immensity which we generally are only able to 
associate with the sea, has always had an extra- 
ordinary charm. I have seen it at all times of the 
year, early in the morning, and at, or just before, 
sundown — nay, even once or twice by moonlight, 
or with the marvellous blue vault overhead, that 
seems so much higher and greater there than else- 
where, studded with planet and star, luminous 
beyond all that we know in our little island, 
where the blue is so pale by comparison, and the 
atmosphere laden with moisture when we think 
it most clear. I do not remember elsewhere in 
Spain, or in any other country, such a depth of 



Spanish Society 73 

sky or such brilliancy of moon and star light as 
in Madrid, where it is as easy to read by night as 
by day on some occasions. 

Given plenty of water, and Madrid is an ideal 
place for flowers. Such carnations as those which 
are grown in the nursery gardens there are never 
seen elsewhere — they are a revelation in horticul- 
ture; nor are the roses any less wonderful. The 
bouquet with which a Spaniard, whether hidalgo 
or one of your servants, greets your birthday is 
generally a pyramid almost as tall as yourself. 
It needs to be placed in a large earthenware jar 
on the floor, and if you should be happy enough 
to have a good many friends, there is scarcely 
room for anything else in your gabinete. The 
flowers one can raise in a balcony in Madrid 
merely by using plenty of water, syringing the 
dust off the leaves, and shading them occasionally 
from the worst heat, are more than equal to any- 
thing a hothouse in England can produce. An 
idea may be formed of the really marvellous fer- 
tility of the soil and climate by the rapidity with 
which seeds develop. I remember one summer, 
when some of the new gardens were being laid 
out in the Buen Retiro, a grand concert and 
evening fete was to be given as the opening func- 
tion. On the evening before this entertainment 
was to take place we happened to be near, and 
strolled in to see how the preparations were going 
on. The gravel walks were all there, the stands 
for the bands, the Chinese lanterns hanging from 



74 Spanish Life 

the trees, but where was the grass ? Alas ! wher- 
ever it ought to have been were to be seen 
brown, sad-looking patches of bare earth, not a 
blade springing anywhere; what was worse, an 
army of gardeners were, at that moment only, 
sowing the seed in some patches, while others 
were being rolled, and watered with hose. Cosa 
de Espana ! of course. It had been put off to 
maha?ia, until now there might be fete, but no 
gardens. The following evening, when in com- 
pany with all Madrid we went to the concert, 
behold a transformation! Soft, green, velvety 
sward — not to be walked on, it is true, but lovely 
to behold — covered the patches so absolutely bald 
twenty-four hours ago. The seed we had seen 
sown had sprung up as thickly as finest cut velvet. 
Cosa de Espana, indeed ! It is not always in Spain 
— the land of the unexpected — that Manana vere- 
mos is foolishness. 

Until after Christmas the winter in Madrid is 
charming, even if it be cold; the glorious sun- 
shine from dawn to sunset, the fine exhilarating 
air, raise one's spirits unconsciously; but very 
often the old year is dead before any real cold 
comes on. I have sat out in the Buen Retiro 
many a day in December with book or work, and 
scarcely any more wrap than one wears in sum- 
mer in England. After that there is generally a 
cold, and perhaps disagreeable, spell, when the 
wind comes howling across the plains straight 
from the snow and ice, and the Madrilefio thinks 



Spanish Society 75 

it terrible ; as a matter of fact, so long as the sky 
remains clear, there is always one side of the 
street where one can be warm. Sometimes, but 
not often, the cold weather or the bitter winds 
last pretty far into the spring, and it has certainly 
happened in the depth of the frost that one of the 
sentries on duty at the Palace, on the side facing 
the mountains, was found frozen to death when 
the relief came. After that the watch was made 
shorter, and the change of guard more frequent 
in winter. I have seen the Bstanque Grande in 
the Eetiro covered with ice several inches thick; 
but as all Madrid turned out to see the wonder 
and watch the foreigners skate, a thing that ap- 
peared never to have been seen before, it could 
not have been a very common occurrence. 

Riding early in the morning in winter outside 
Madrid, even with the sun shining brightly and 
a cloudless sky, the cold was often intense, espe- 
cially in the dells and hollows. We have often had 
to put our hands under the saddle to keep them 
from freezing, so as to be able to feel the reins, 
and if I were riding with the sun on the off-side, 
my feet would become perfectly dead to feeling. 
But what an air it was ! Something to be remem- 
bered, and long before we reached home we were 
in a delicious glow. The horses, English thor- 
oughbreds, enjoyed it immensely, and went like 
the wind. I have been in Madrid in every part 
of the year, and never found it unbearably hot, 
though one does not generally wait for July or 



7 6 



Spanish Life 



August ; but here again the lightness and dryness 
of the air seem to make heat much easier to 
bear. Numbers of Madrid people think nothing 
of remaining there all the summer through. 




CHAPTER V 



MODERN MADRID 



M 



ADRID has grown out of all knowledge in 
the last thirty years. No one who had not 
seen it since the time of Isabel II. would recognise 
it now, and even then much had been done since 
Ferdinand VII. had come back from his fawning 
and despicable captivity in France — where he had 
gloried in calling himself a " French prince " — to 
act the despot in his own country. The Liberal 
Ministers who, for short periods, had some sem- 
blance of power during the regency of Cristina 
had done a little to restore the civilisation and 
light established by Charles III., and wholly 
quenched in the time of his unworthy and con- 
temptible successors. But even in 1865, the 
Alcala Gate, standing where the Plaza de la In- 
dependencia is now, formed one boundary of 
Madrid, the Gate of Atocha was still standing at 
the end of the paseo of that name, and the Gate 
of Sta. Barbara formed another of the limits of 
the city. The Museo was unfinished and only 
to be entered by a side door, encumbered with 
builders' rubbish and half-hewn blocks of stone. 

77 



7% Spanish Life 

The Paseo of la Fuente Castellana ended the 
Prado, and not a house was to be seen beyond 
the Mint, or outside the Gate of Alcald. 

All the town outside these barriers has arisen 
since; the magnificent viaduct across the Calle de 
Segovia, the Markets, the Parque de Madrid, the 
Hippodrome, the present Plaza de Toros, all are 
new. The old Bull Ring stood just outside the 
Alcala Gate, and all beyond it was open country ; 
no casas palacias along the Fuente Castellana, no 
Barrio Salamanca. Madrid has, however, always 
been a cheerful, noisy, stirring city, full of life and 
the expression of animal spirits. In days not so 
very long past the streets were filled with pic- 
turesque costumes of the provinces, with gaily 
decorated mules and donkeys carrying immense 
loads of hay or straw, or huge nets filled with 
melons or pumpkins, almost hiding everj r thing 
but the head and the feet of the animal; or a 
smart-looking "Jacket" man from the country 
districts would go whistling by, Asturians, Mur 
cians, Gallegos, gypsies, toreros in their brilliant 
traje Andaluz — always to be recognised by their 
tiny pigtails of hair, and by their splendidly lithe 
and graceful carriage — all these jostling, singing, 
chaffing each other, while the jingling bells on in- 
numerable horses, mules, donkeys, rang through 
the sunlit air, and made the Puerta de Sol and the 
streets branching from it a constant scene of life 
and gaiety. Now and then would come the deep 
clang of the huge bell of the draught oxen, draw- 




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Modern Madrid 79 

ing their Old-World carts, often with solid discs of 
wood for wheels, while the women of the lower 
class sported their brilliantly embroidered Manila 
shawls, chattered, and flattered their gaily-col- 
oured fans just like the other senoritas. Mantil- 
las, even then, were only to be seen on old ladies; 
but the smart little velo coquettishly fastened 
with a natural flower adorned all the young 
girls — French millinery, which never suits a 
Spanish' face, being kept for the evening paseo. 
It is a pity these national costumes have gone out 
of fashion. A Spanish girl with velo and fan is 
something quite superior to the same fascinating 
young person dressed after the style of Paris — 
with a difference; for there is always a difference. 

Madrid, in fact, is becoming cosmopolitan, and 
is little to be distinguished from other capitals, 
except in the barrios bajos on the national Jies las, 
and wherever the country people, as distinguished 
from the Madrid work-people, congregate. These 
last are rapidty losing all picturesqueness, dress- 
ing just as the workers in any other capital dress. 
They are, perhaps, still no less gatos (cats), those 
of them at least who have had the honour of being 
born in La Corte, this being the name given them 
by their fellow country-people. 

If it be meant as a term of reproach, the Madri- 
leno has an excellent answer in giving the history 
of its origin. In the reign of Alfonso VI., dur- 
ing one of the many war-like operations of this 
King, he wished to take an important and difficult 



8o Spanish Life 

fortress, and had collected all his forces to at- 
tack it — the Madrilenos alone were late; it 
was, in fact, only the day before the assault was 
to take place that they arrived upon the scene. 
The King was furious, and when their leader ap- 
proached his Majesty to know where the troops 
were to bivouac for the night, he replied that 
there was no room in his camp for laggards; 
pointing to the enemy's fortress, he added: " There 
will be found plenty of lodging for those who come 
too late for any other." Saluting his Majesty 
very courteously, the soldier withdrew, under- 
standing thoroughly the indirect sneer at the 
valour of his troops; he went back to his regi- 
ment, summoned his officers and men, and re- 
peated to them the King's word. One and all 
agreed that they would, in fact, seek their night's 
lodging just where the King had indicated. Im- 
possible as the feat appeared, they instantly 
rushed to the attack of the formidable fortress 
with such irresistible dash that they succeeded in 
scaling the walls and entering it, pikes in rest. 
The King, who had run forward as soon as he 
heard of the attack, watched with delight his 
loyal Madrilenos climbing up the face of the 
masonry with extraordinary skill, and not a little 
loss. 

"Look, look!" he cried to those near him. 
" See how they climb! They are cats! " 

The other forces at once came to their assist- 
ance, the fortress fell into the King's hands before 



Modern Madrid 81 

nightfall, and those who had been in " no hurry " 
to join the army found their lodgings within it, 
as his Majesty had contemptuously recommended 
them to do. His anger was forgotten in admira- 
tion and praise; and, from that time, all those 
born in Madrid have the right to call themselves 
gatos. 

It is curious how the observation of those who 
know Spain intimately differs — one must suppose 
according to temperament. Thus Antonio Gal- 
lenga, the well-known correspondent of the Times, 
who really knew Spain well, has left it on record 
that the people are not musical, and that he never 
remembers to have heard any of them singing in 
the streets, or at their work. I do not know how 
this could have happened, unless our old friend 
did not recognise the singing he. did hear as 
music, for which he might, perhaps, be forgiven. 
My own experience is that the people are always 
singing, more or less, if you agree to call it so. 
As the houses are almost all built in flats, many 
of the windows open into patios, or court-yards, 
large or small, as the case may be. You may 
reckon on always having two or three servants, 
male or female, at work in the patio, the women 
washing or scrubbing, the men probably cleaning 
their horses, carriages, or harness; but whatever 
else they may be doing, you may be quite certain 
they will all be singing, though it is equally cer- 
tain that, by the greatest exercise of amiability, 
you could scarcely call the result a song; the 

6 



82 Spanish Life 

words seem to be improvised as the performer 
goes on. There was a light-hearted groom in 
one of "C^o, patios of our flat, in the Calle Lope de 
Vega, who would continue almost without a 
break the whole day. An old friend who used to 
amuse himself by listening to this remarkable 
performer declared that if he started his song in 
the early morning with a stick that was thick 
enough, he would go on till midnight telling the 
world in general all the people he had killed with 
it, and the other wonders of Hercules it had per- 
formed. 

The ditty always begins on a high note, and 
goes quavering irregularly downwards, with 
infinite twirls, shakes, and prolonged notes, 
these being sung to the exclamation "Ay!" 
Minor keys enter a good deal into this kind 
of performance, and the most remarkable part 
of it is that the singer, once having reached 
the bottom of the scale — for there is no end — 
is able to begin again on the same high note, 
and hit upon, more or less, the same variations 
a second time. If you have nothing better to 
do than to listen to some of these improvis- 
atores, you will get a long, and more or less 
connected, history of some event; but it takes a 
long time — and, perhaps, is not often worth the 
expenditure. The songs which you hear to the 
accompaniment of the guitar are different from 
these, though the introduction of the " Ay ! " and 
the frequent shakes and twirls are always there. 



Modern Madrid 83 

The working Madrileno's ideal of happiness is 
to go a little way along one of the dusty caminos 
reales (highways) to some little venta, or tavern, 
or to take refreshments out in baskets. They 
will sit quite contentedly in the dust by the side 
of the road, or in a field of stubble or burnt-up 
grass, to eat and drink, and then the guitar comes 
into play, and the dancing begins. It is always 
the jota aragonesa y which is not so much dancing 
as twirling about slowly, and, it would almost 
seem, sadly; but there is always a circle of ad- 
miring lookers-on, who beat time with stamping 
of feet and clapping of hands, and watch the per- 
formance as eagerly as if there were something 
quite fresh and new about it. Occasionally, these 
parties go out by omnibus or tram, as far as they 
can, and then start their picnic repast, to be fol- 
lowed by the inevitable dance and song, just 
wherever they happen to be. 

One of the most curious sights of Madrid is the 
great wash-tub of the Manzanares. As you 
descend the steep bluff on which the city stands, 
towards the river, you find the banks covered 
with laundresses, kneeling at short distances 
from one another, each scrubbing the clothes on 
one board, which slopes down into the water, 
while another board, fixed so as to stand out into 
the stream, or a little embankment made of sand, 
dams up the scanty supply of water she can ob- 
tain. As the Manzanares in summer is divided 
into a great number of small streams, this scene 



84 Spanish Life 

is repeated on the edge of each one, while the ex- 
panse of sand which occupies the centre of what 
ought to be the river-bed is one forest of clothes- 
props, with all the wash of Madrid hanging on 
the lines. On the banks the children, in the 
intervals of school, are playing bull-fights, or 
some of their innumerable dancing and singing 
games; the women are one and all performing the 
gradual descent of the gamut with variations 
called singing; and above all is the glorious sun, 
transfiguring all things, and throwing deep, 
purple shadows from the high plane-trees along 
the banks. 

The road which runs along the bank of the 
Manzanares, at the farther side from Madrid, is 
a revelation to those who only know the plains 
through which the railway from the north passes, 
and which for the greater part of the year, except 
when the crops are growing, are quite as arid as 
we are accustomed to suppose. On the left lies 
the Casa de Campo, an immense extent of park, 
containing, on the high ground, some splendid 
specimens of the Scotch fir, and, in more sheltered 
spots, groves of beech, avenues of plane, and 
masses of the dark-leaved ilex, which grows to 
great perfection in this climate. The ' ' Florida, ' ' 
another of the royal properties, lies to the right, 
and a splendid road shaded by majestic trees, and 
with wide, grassy margins, stretches away to the 
village of El Pardillo, where Longfellow estab- 
lished his quarters, and which he describes in his 



Modern Madrid 85 

Outre Mer, and from that on to the forest, or 
whatever you may call it, of El Pardo, where 
there is a royal residence now but seldom used, 
you may ride for many hours and still find your- 
self in this wild park, which many of the inhabi- 
tants of Madrid have never seen. Here one can 
realise a little how the city may have once been 
a hunting lodge of the Kings, as we are told. 
The Pardo may be reached through the Casa de 
Campo, a gate at the extreme end of the princi- 
pal drive leading into the forest. 

Up on the high ground of the Casa de Campo 
there is a splendid view of Madrid, with the 
Palace crowning the steep bluff overhanging the 
Manzanares. It was in the "country house" 
itself, near the gate, that our " Baby Charles" is 
said to have climbed the high wall of the court- 
yard to get a glimpse of the Infanta whom he 
hoped to make his wife. When I knew the 
place intimately, on the very highest part of the 
Park was a large enclosure of the wild forest, 
railed in with high wooden palisading. Within 
this lived a flock of ostriches, belonging to the 
Crown. No one seemed to know anything about 
them, nor how long they had been there. What 
puzzled us much was how they were fed, or if 
they were left to cater for themselves. One thing 
I can answer for: they were very wild, and very 
ferocious; the moment they saw our horses com- 
ing up the hill they would run from all parts 
of the enclosure trying their best to get at us, 



86 Spanish Life 

striking with their feet and wings, and uttering 
gruesome shrieks. It was one of our amusements 
to race them, keeping outside their high fence 
while they strode over the ground, their necks 
stretched out, and their absurd wings napping 
after the manner of a farmyard gander; but, with 
the best efforts, the horses were never able to 
keep up the pace for long; the birds invariably 
won, and we left them screeching and using lan- 
guage that did not appear to be parliamentary, 
when they found that the fence was the only 
thing that did not give in, as they craned their 
necks and stamped in their baffled rage. The 
horses, at first rather afraid of the birds, soon 
learned to enjoy the fun, and raced them for all 
they were worth. I do not know if this strange 
colony is still settled there. 

A curious feature of Spanish country life to us 
are the goatherds. Where the large flocks of 
goats about Madrid pasture, I know not; but I 
have often seen them coming home in the even- 
ing to be milked, or starting out in the morn- 
ing. The goatherd, clad in his ma?ita, and 
carrying a long wand of office over his shoulder, 
and I think also a horn, stalks majestically along 
with all the dignity of a royal marshal of proces- 
sions, and the goats follow him, with a good deal 
of lagging behind for play, or nibbling, if they 
should chance to see anything green. Still, they 
scamper after their generalissimo in the end, and 
meanwhile he is much too dignified to look back. 



Modern Madrid 87 

Taking advantage of this, I have seen women 
come out of their cottages on the roadside and 
milk a goat or two as it passed; and from the 
way the animal made a full stop, and lent itself to 
the fraud — if such it were — it was evidently a 
daily occurrence. 

In times not long past, if indeed they do not 
still exist, the dust-heaps outside Madrid were 
the homes of packs of lean, hungry dogs, great 
brindled creatures of the breed to be seen in 
Velasquez pictures; these animals prowled about 
the streets of Madrid in the early morning, acting 
as scavengers. When they became too numerous, 
the civil guards laid poison about at night in the 
dust-heaps before the houses, and the very early 
riser might see four or five of these great creatures 
lying dead on the carts which collect the refuse 
of Madrid before the world in general is astir. 
These wild dogs were disagreeable customers 
to meet when riding outside the city, until we 
learned to avoid the localities where they spent 
their days, for they would give chase to the horses 
if they caught sight of them, and the only thing 
to be done was to remain perfectly quiet until 
they tired of barking and returned to the dust- 
hills to resume their search for food. 

The description of peasant life in Madrid would 
be incomplete if we left unmentioned the daily 
siesta in the sun of the Gallegos and lower-class 
working-men. On the benches in the Prado, on 
the pavement, in the full blaze of the sun, these 



8S Spanish Life 

men will stretch themselves and sleep for an hour 
or two after their midday meal. I have seen the 
Gallego porters make themselves a hammock with 
the rope they always carry with them — 711020s de 
cuerda they are called — literally slinging them- 
selves to -the reja or iron bars of the window of 
some private house, and sleep soundly in a posi- 
tion that would surely kill any other human 
being. ''Taking the sun" (Jomando el sol) is, 
however, the custom of every Spaniard of what- 
ever degree. 

The casual visitor to Madrid is always struck 
with the number of carriages to be seen in the 
paseo ; but the fact is that everyone keeps a 
carriage, if it be at all possible, and it is no un- 
common thing for two or three polios to join to- 
gether in the expense of this luxury, and a sight 
almost unknown to us is common enough in 
Madrid — young men, the "curled darlings" of 
society, lazily lounging in a Victoria or Berlina in 
what is known as the "Ladies' Mile." The 
Madrid polio is not the most favourable speci- 
men of a Spaniard ; the word literally means a 
"chicken," but applied to a young man it is 
scarcely a complimentary expression, and has its 
counterpart with us in the slang terms which 
from time to time indicate the idle exquisite who 
thinks as much of his dress and his style as any 
woman does or more. The Madrid polio often is, 
or ought to be, a schoolboy, and the younger he 
is, naturally, the more conceited and impertinent 



Modern Madrid 89 

he is. It is curious that with the feminine term- 
ination, this word (polla) loses all sense of banter 
or contempt; it simply means a young girl in the 
first charm of her spring-time. 

Riding in the Row has always been a favourite 
pastime in Madrid, but to English ideas the polio 
is more objectionable there than elsewhere, since 
his idea of riding is to show off the antics of a 
horse specially taught and made to prance about 
and curvet while he sits it, his legs sticking out 
in the position of the Colossus of Rhodes, his 
heels, armed with spurs, threatening catastrophe 
to the other riders. An old English master of 
foxhounds, who was a frequent visitor in Madrid, 
used to compare the Paseo of the Fuente Castel- 
lana at the fashionable hour to a "chevaux defrise 
on horseback. ' ' These gentlemen must not, how- 
ever, be supposed to represent Spanish horseman- 
ship. Indies ride a good deal in the Paseo, but 
one cannot call them good horsewomen. To get 
into the saddle from a chair, or a pair of stable 
steps, and let their steed walk up and down for 
an hour or so in the Row, is not exactly what we 
call riding. If you hire a carriage in Madrid you 
are so smart that your best friends would not 
recognise you. A grand barouche and pair dashes 
up to your door, probably with a ducal coronet 
on the panels. The coachman and footman wear 
cockades, and the moment you appear they both 
take off their hats and hold them in their hands 
until you are seated in the carriage. This cere- 



90 Spanish Life 

mony is repeated every time you alight, the 
coachman reverently uncovering as you leave the 
carriage or return to it, as well as the footman 
who is opening the door for you. 

It is most comforting; royalty, I feel sure, is 
nothing to it! We will not look critically at the 
lining of the noble barouche, nor at the varnish on 
its panels, still less make disagreeable remarks 
about the liveries, which do not always fit their 
wearers — it is economical to have liveries made a 
good medium size, so that if the servants are 
changed the clothes are not; — one can always feel 
grateful for the polite and agreeable attendants. 
How oddly it must strike the Spaniards in Eng- 
land to notice the stolid indifference of "Jeames 
de la Plush," and the curt tap of his first finger 
on the brim of his hat as his lady enters her car- 
riage or gives her directions! 

All the mules, and most of the horses, ponies, 
or donkeys ridden by the "Jacket" men or 
country people are trained to pace instead of to 
trot; it is said to be less fatiguing on a long jour- 
ney. The motion as you ride is, to our notions, 
very unpleasant, being a kind of roll, which at 
first, at any rate, gives one the feeling of sea- 
sickness. The animal uses the fore and hind feet 
together alternately, as he literally runs over the 
ground. It does not appear to be a natural pace, 
but is carefully taught, and, once acquired, it is 
very difficult to break the animal of it; his idea of 
trotting has become quite lost; nor is it a pretty 



Modern Madrid 9 1 

action, nor one suited to show off good qualities — 
it has always something of a shuffle about it. If 
it has its advantages, except that stirrups may be 
dispensed with, they are not very apparent to 
those accustomed to the usual paces of an English 
horse. Personally, I disliked it particularly. 

There have been many efforts to introduce 
racing, with its contingent improvement in the 
breed of horses, perhaps the earliest during the 
regency of Espartero; but these ended, as most 
things did in the old days when Spain was only 
beginning her long struggle for freedom, in fail- 
ure and loss to the enterprising gentlemen — of 
whom the then Duque de Osuna was one— who 
spent large sums of money in the effort. The 
old race-course of that time lay somewhere in the 
low ground outside Madrid on the course of 
the Manzanares; manj^ a good gallop I have had 
on it, though it was abandoned and forgotten 
long ago by the Madrilefios. At the present 
time horse-racing may be said to have become 
naturalised in Spain under the Sociedad del Fo- 
mento de la Cria Caballar (Society for the Encour- 
agement of Horse-breeding), and all that concerns 
horsemanship is naturally improved and improv- 
ing. 

A good idea of Spanish horses may be gained 
by a visit to the Royal Mews in Madrid. There 
are the cream-coloured horses from the royal 
stud at Aranjuez, jacuitas from Andalucia, as 
well as the mountain ponies of Galicia. Those 



92 Spanish Life 

who have never seen the Spanish mule have no 
idea what the animal is — powerful, active, grace- 
ful, and almost impossible to injure. They are 
used in the royal stables and in those of the 
nobility, for night work, since they are so hardy 
as not to be injured by long waiting in the cold 
or wet. They are the correct thing in the car- 
riages of the Papal Nuncio and all ecclesiastics, 
and are generally preferred to horses for long or 
difficult journeys. They are a great feature in 
the army; kept in splendid condition and of great 
size, they not only drag the heavy guns, but in 
the celebrated mountain artillery each mule car- 
ries a small gun on his back. A brigade of this 
arm would have been invaluable to the British in 
South Africa, having no doubt had its initiation in 
the guerilla warfare of Spain's frequent civil wars. 
The clipping of mules and donkeys, which are 
also very superior animals to anything we know 
by that name, is in the hands of the gypsies, who 
have a perfect genius for decorating their own 
animals and any others committed to their man- 
ipulation. Only- the upper part is shaved, or 
clipped to the skin, the long winter coat being 
left on the legs and half-way up the body. Gen- 
erally, on the shoulders and haunches a pattern is 
made by leaving some of the hair a little longer; 
the figure of the cross with rays is not uncommon, 
but it is wonderful how elaborate and beautiful 
some of these patterns are, looking as if embossed 
in velvet on the skin. One day, passing a venta 



Modern Madrid 93 

in a street in Madrid, we were attracted by a gaily- 
decked donkey standing ontside. He had the 
words, Viva mi Amo (Iyong live my Master!), 
finished with a beautiful and artistic scroll pat- 
tern, in rich velvet across his haunches. While 
we stood admiring this work of art, the master 
within laughingly warned us that the ass kicked 
if anyone came near him. Perhaps the elaborate 
decoration was a practical joke! 

The mules and donkeys which come in from 
the country are generally very picturesque, with 
a network of crimson silk tassels over their heads, 
and a bright-coloured manta thrown across their 
sleek, glossy backs. These manias serve many 
purposes; they are made of two breadths of 
brightly striped and ornamented material of wool 
and silk, sewn up at one end, or sometimes for 
some distance at each end, like a purse; some- 
times they are thrown across the mule to serve as 
saddle-bags, sometimes one end is used as a hood 
and is drawn over the master's head, while the 
remainder is thrown across his chest and mouth 
and over the left shoulder. The best of these 
niantas are elaborately trimmed at both ends with 
a deep interlacing fringe, ending in a close row of 
balls, and have a thick ornamental cord sewn 
over the joining. These, which are intended for 
human wraps and not as saddle-bags, are only 
sewn up at one end, so as to form something very 
like the old monkish hood. All the horses, mules, 
donkeys, and oxen wear bells: the oxen have 



94 Spanish Life 

generally only one large bronze bell, which 
hangs under the head ; the others have rows of 
small jingling silver or brass bells round their 
collars or bridles. 

These draught oxen are beautiful animals, 
mostly a deep cream in colour, with dark points, 
magnificent eyes, and a sphinx-like look of 
patience, as if biding their time for something 
much better to come. Their harness is not ap- 
parently irksome to them, and is not so heavy as 
one sees on the Portuguese oxen, for instance. 
They are coupled by a wooden bar across the 
head, and their driver, if such he can be called — 
rather, perhaps, the guide — walks in front with a 
long stick, possibly a wand of office, over his 
shoulder to show them the way. The dress of 
this functionary is picturesque: a wide-brimmed 
hat {sombrero), a shirt, short trousers to the 
knees, with gaiters of woven grass {esparto), a 
faja round his waist, and ma?ita thrown over his 
shoulder if cold. He stalks majestically along, 
followed by his equally majestic bueyes, and one 
wonders of what all three are thinking as they 
trudge along the sun-smitten roads, regardless of 
dust or of anything else. The cars are rude 
enough, and the wheels sometimes solid discs of 
wood. Occasionally, a hood of bent pieces of 
wood covered with linen is fixed. Tame oxen, or 
cabestros, as they are called, play a very important 
part in the ga?iaderos and the bull-rings. They 
appear to be held in some sort of superstitious 



Modern Madrid 95 

reverence, or strange affection, by the poor beasts 
who only live to make sport for men. In driving 
the bulls from one pasture to another, or bringing 
them into the towns, the cabestros are followed 
with unwavering faith by these otherwise danger- 
ous animals; where the cabestro goes, clanging his 
great bell, the bull follows, and while under the 
charge of his domesticated friend he is quite 
harmless. 

At one time, the bulls used to be driven to the 
bull-ring outside Madrid in specially made roads 
sunk some fifteen feet below the level of the fields, 
and paved. Along these the pastor, or shepherd, 
and picadores, armed with long lances, went with 
the cabestros and the herd of bulls to be immolated. 
I have frequently met this procession when riding, 
either in the early morning or late evening, out- 
side Madrid; but so long as the cabestros are 
present, there is nothing to fear, for the bulls are 
perfectly quiet and harmless. Once, however, 
riding with a friend, I had a disagreeable and ex- 
citing adventure. We were quietly walking our 
horses along the Ronda de Alcala, when we heard 
an immense amount of shouting, and suddenly be- 
came aware that we ourselves were the objects of 
the excitement, waving of hands, screaming, and 
gesticulating. Before we had time to do more 
than realise that we were being warned of some 
terrific danger in wait for us round the corner of 
the high wall, some little distance in advance, two 
picadores on horseback, armed with their long 



96 Spanish Life 

pikes, galloped round the corner, also shouting 
wildly to us, and pointing across the fields as if 
telling us to fly, and almost at the same moment 
the whole drove of bulls, tearing along at a ter- 
rific rate, without cabestros, appeared, charging 
straight towards us. We did not need a second 
hint. At one side of the road was the old wall 
of Madrid, at the other a high bank with a 
wide ditch beyond it. Without a word, we put 
our horses at the bank, — they had realised the 
situation as quickly as we had, — jumped the ditch 
at a flying leap from the top of the bank, and were 
off across a field of young wheat. Once only I 
looked behind, and saw a magnificent black bull, 
with his tail in the air — a signal of attack — on 
the top of the bank over which I had just leaped, 
preparing to follow me. Long afterwards, as it 
seemed, when my horse slackened his pace, I 
found myself alone in a wide plain, neither bulls 
nor fellow-rider to be seen. His horse had bolted 
in another direction from mine, and we heard 
afterwards that the picadores had galloped in be- 
tween me and the sporting bull and turned him 
back. Eventually, the cabestros appeared on the 
scene, and the poor misguided bulls were inveigled 
into the shambles for the fiesta of the morrow. 
How they had ever managed to break away or 
gain the public road at all, we were never able to 
learn. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE COURT 



DURING the reign of Don Alfonso XII. , ex- 
cept during the interval when the melan- 
choly death of his first beloved Queen, Mercedes, 
plunged King, Court, and people into mourning, 
Madrid was gayer than perhaps it has ever been. 
No one loved ami sement better than the young 
King, who was only seventeen when the military 
pronunciamiento of Martinez Campo called him to 
the throne from which his mother had been driven 
seven years previously. He had taken his people, 
and indeed all the world, by storm, for from the 
first moment he had shown all the qualities which 
make a ruler popular, and Spain has never had a 
young monarch of so much promise. He had the 
royal gift of memory, and an extraordinary facil- 
ity in speaking foreign languages; it was said 
that the Russian and the Turkish envoys were 
the only ones with whom he was unable to con- 
verse as freely in their languages as in his own. 
He was an excellent speaker, always knew the 
right thing to say, the best thing to do to gain the 
hearts of his people, and to make himself agreeable 

97 



98 Spanish Life 

to all parties and all nationalities alike. He 
was the first King of Spain to address his people 
de usted in place of de tu, a mark of respect which 
they were not slow to appreciate; he was a 
modern, in that he would go out alone, either on 
foot or riding, allowed applause in his presence 
at the theatres, unknown before, and himself 
would salute those he knew from his box. He 
gave audience to all who asked, was an early 
riser, devoted to business when it had to be per- 
formed, was an enthusiast in all military matters, 
and, perhaps better than all in the eyes of his 
people, he was devoted to the bull-ring. Ex- 
tremely active, resolute, firm, fond of all kinds of 
active sports, such as hunting and shooting, 
equally fond of society, picnics, dances, and all 
kinds of entertainments, he seemed destined to 
become the idol of his people, and to lead his be- 
loved country back to its place in Europe. His 
death, when only twenty-seven, changed all this. 
Queen Maria Cristina has been a model wife, 
widow, mother, and Regent. She was devoted 
to her husband, and though it was said at first to 
be a political marriage, contracted to please the 
people, it was undoubtedly a happy one. The 
Queen has scarcely taken more part in public life 
during her sad widowhood than Queen Victoria 
did. She has devoted herself to her public duties 
as Regent and to the education and care of her 
children. 

Alfonso XIII., born a king after his father's 



The Court 99 

death, has always been rather a delicate boy; his 
mother has determined that his health and his 
education shall be the first and chief care of her 
life, and nothing turns her from this purpose. If 
she has never been exactly popular, she has at 
least the unbounded respect and admiration of 
the people. She does not love the " bulls," and, 
therefore, she is not Espanola enough to awaken 
enthusiasm; she keeps the boy King too much 
out of sight, so that his people scarcely know 
him, even in Madrid; but this is the very utmost 
that anyone has to say against her, while all 
shades of politicians, even to declared Repub- 
licans, speak of her with respect and with real 
admiration of her qualities of heart and mind. 

All Court gaieties are, however, at an end. 
Once a year or so a ball at the palace, a formal 
dinner, or reception, when it cannot be avoided — 
that is all, and for the rest the Queen is rarely 
seen except at religious ceremonies or state func- 
tions, and the King, never. He is supposed to 
take his amusements and exercise in the Casa de 
Campo, and rarely crosses Madrid. 

Numerous stories used to be told of his pre- 
cocity as a child, and of his smart sayings; some- 
times of his generosity and sympathy with the 
poor and suffering. Now one is told he is some- 
what of a pickle, but fables about royalty may 
always be received with more than a grain of 
salt. One of the stories told of him, which ought 
to be true, since it has the ring of childhood about 
LofC. 



ioo Spanish Life 

it, is well known. When a small boy, his Aus- 
trian governess, of whom he was very fond, 
reproved him for using his knife in place of a 
fork. " Gentlemen never do so," she said. 
" But I am a King," he replied. " Kings, still 
less, eat with their knives," said the governess. 
" This King does," was the composed reply of the 
child. 

The etiquette of the Spanish Court, although it 
was much modified by Alfonso XII., is still very 
formal. A perfectly infinite number of mayor- 
domos, caballerizos, gentiles hombres de casa y boca, 
ujicres, a/abarderos, monteros y aides - de - camp, 
Grandes de Espana de servicio, ladies-in-waiting, 
lackeys, servants, and attendants of every pos- 
sible description abound. A man going to an 
audience with royalty uncovers as he enters the 
Palace. First, he will find the alabardero de 
servicio placed at the entrance of the vestibule; 
farther on, more alabarde?vs. Whenever a Grande 
de Espana, a prelate, a grand cross, or a title of 
Castile passes, these guards strike the marble 
floor with their arms — a noise which may well 
cause the uninitiated to start. Three halls are 
used for grouping, according to their rank, those 
who are about to be presented: first, the saleta, 
where ordinary people — all the world, in fact — 
wait; next, the cdviara, for those who have titles 
or wear the grand cross; third, the antecdmara, 
reserved for the Grandes of Spain, and gentiles 
hombres en ejercio. The Grandes of Spain, cham- 



The Court 101 

berlains of the King, share between them the 
service of his Majesty. They are called in rota- 
tion, one day's notice being given before they are 
expected to attend in the Palace. In the ante- 
chamber of the King there is always the Grande 
in waiting, the lady-in-waiting on the Queen, two 
aides-de-camp, and a gentil hombre del interio 
(the last must not be confounded with the gentiles 
hombres e?i ejercio, who have the right to enter the 
ante-chamber). There are, of course, equerries 
{caballerizos) who attend, as ours do, on horse- 
back, when the King or Queen goes out; but the 
most essentially Spanish attendants are the Mon- 
teros de Espinosa, who have the exclusive right 
to watch while Royalty sleeps. These attendants 
must all be born in Espinosa; it is an hereditary 
honour, and the wives of the existing Monteros 
are careful to go to Espinosa when they expect an 
addition to their family, as no one not actually 
born there can hold the office. At the present 
time this guard is recruited from captains or lieu- 
tenants on the retired list. 

In the ante-chamber of each member of the 
Royal Family two of these take their place at 
eleven o'clock; they never speak, never sit down, 
but pass the whole night pacing the room, cross- 
ing each other as they go, until morning relieves 
them from what must be rather a trying watch. 
At eleven o'clock each evening there is a solemn 
procession of servants and officials in imposing 
uniforms down the grand staircase of the Palace ; 



102 Spanish Life 

every door is closed and locked by a gentleman 
wearing an antique costume and a three-cornered 
hat, and having an enormous bunch of keys. 
From that time the Palace remains under the ex- 
clusive charge of the Monteros de Kspinosa. Al- 
though this is the official programme, it is to be 
hoped the hour is not a fixed one. It would be a 
little cruel to put the Royal Family to bed so 
early, without regard to their feelings; especially 
as Madrid is essentially a city of late hours, and 
the various members of it would have to scamper 
away from opera, or in fact any entertainment, 
as if some malignant fairy were wanting to cast a 
spell at the witching hour of midnight. There are 
some curious superstitions, however, about being 
abroad when the clocks strike twelve, which we 
must suppose do not now affect the Madrilefio. 

While the old church of Atocha was still stand- 
ing, the Court, with a royal escort, or what is 
called escadro?i de salut, all the dignitaries of the 
Palace in attendance, guards, outriders, etc., in 
gorgeous array, drove in half state (jnedia gala) 
across Madrid and the paseos to hear the salut 
1 'sa' 7it ' ' on Saturday. The Queen Regent and her 
daughters, but not often the King, now visit in 
turn some of the churches, but without the old 
state or regularity. 

Since the death of Alfonso XII. many of the 
purely Spanish customs of the Court have been 
modified or discontinued. Although the late 
King was credited with a desire to reduce the 



The Court 103 

civil list, and to adopt more English customs, he 
was to some extent in the hands of the Conserva- 
tives, who had been the means of his restoration, 
and when he went forth to put an end to the 
Carlist insurrection and finish the civil war, 
which had laid desolate the Northern provinces 
and ruined commerce and industry for some seven 
years, it was at the head of a personal following 
of over five hundred people. Nor was the Court 
much, if any, less numerous when the Royal 
Family removed in the summer to the lovely 
Palace of St. Ildefonso at L,a Granja — that castle 
in the air, which has no equal in Europe, hang- 
ing, as it does, among gardens, forests, rivers, 
and lakes, three thousand eight hundred and 
forty feet above the level of the sea. 

The Queen is Austrian, and she has never 
gone out of her way to conciliate the people by 
making herself really Spanish. This she has left 
to the Infanta Isabel, the eldest sister of Alfonso 
XII. For many years before the birth of her 
brother, the Infanta Isabel was Princess of As- 
turias, as heiress apparent of the Crown. With 
the advent of a boy, she became, of course, only 
Infanta, losing the rank which she had held up 
to this time. Being but a child at the time, she 
perhaps knew or cared little for any difference it 
may have made in her surroundings. She shared 
in the flight of the Royal Family to France in 
1868, and her education was completed in Paris. 
When the whirligig of Spanish politics called her 



104 Spanish Life 

brother Alfonso, who at the time was a military 
student at Sandhurst, to the throne from which 
his mother had been driven, Princess Isabel re- 
turned with him to Madrid, and was once more 
installed in the Palace, above the Manzanares, as 
Princess of Asturias. This rank remained hers 
during the short episode of her brother's marriage 
to his cousin Mercedes, and the melancholy death 
of the girl Queen at the moment when a direct 
heir to the throne was expected. Once more, 
when the daughter of Alfonso's second wife, the 
present Queen Regent, was born, the Infanta 
Isabel became her title, and she took again the 
lower rank. 

Nothing in history is more pathetic than this 
first marriage of Alfonso XII. and its unhappy 
termination. The children of Queen Isabel and 
those of her sister, the Duquesa de Montpensier, 
had been brought up together, and there was a 
boy-and-girl attachment between the Prince of 
Asturias and his cousin Mercedes. When Alfonso 
became King, almost as it seemed by accident, 
and it was thought necessary that he should 
marry, the boy gravely assured his Ministers that 
he was quite willing to do so, and in fact intended 
to marry his cousin. Nothing could be more in- 
opportune, nothing more contrary to the welfare 
of the distracted country! From the time that 
the notorious " Spanish marriages" had become 
facts, the Duke of Montpensier had been an in- 
triguer. The birth of heirs to the throne of Spain 



The Court 105 

(it is useless to go back to those long-past scan- 
dals) had completely upset the machinations of 
Louis Philippe and his Ministers. So long as 
Don Francisco de Assis and the Spanish nation 
chose to acknowledge the children as legitimate, 
there was nothing to be done. The direct hope 
of seeing his sons Kings of Spain faded from the 
view of the French husband of the sister of Isabel 
II., but he never for one moment ceased to 
intrigue. Although loaded with benefits and 
kindness by the Queen, Montpensier took no 
small part in the revolution which drove her from 
the country. Topete, and Serrano — who had 
once been what the Spaniards called Polio Real 
himself — were bound in honour to uphold his 
candidature for the vacant throne; their promise 
had been given long before the pronunciamie?ito 
at Cadiz had made successful revolution possi- 
ble. Prim alone stood firm: "J^amas, jamas ! " 
(Never, never!) he replied to every suggestion 
to bring Montpensier forward. In those words 
he signed his own death-warrant. His actual 
murderers were never brought to justice, ostensi- 
bly were never found; but there never was a 
Spaniard who doubted that the foul deed was the 
.result of instigation. 

To have Mercedes as Queen Consort, was to 
bring her father once more within the limits of 
practical interference with national politics. To 
all remonstrance, however, the young King had 
one answer: " I have promised," and the nation, 



106 Spanish Life 

recognising that as a perfectly valid argument, 
acquiesced, though with many forebodings. The 
marriage took place, and within a few months the 
girl Queen was carried with her unborn child to 
the melancholy Panteon de los Principes at the 
Kscorial. 

The marriage of the Infanta Isabel with Count 
Girgenti, a Neapolitan Bourbon, was an unhappy 
one, and she obtained a legal separation from him 
after a very short matrimonial life. Spaniards 
have a perfect genius for giving apt nicknames. 
Scarcely was the arrangement for the marriage 
made known when the Count's name was changed 
to that of Indecente. He fought, however, for 
Isabel II. at Alcolea, which was at any rate act- 
ing more decently than did Montpensier, who had 
furnished large sums of money to promote the 
rising against his confiding sister-in-law, and, in 
fact, never ceased his machinations against every 
person and every thing that stood in his way, 
until death fortunately removed him from the 
arena of Spanish politics, his one overmastering 
ambition unfulfilled. He had neither managed 
to ascend the throne himself, nor see any of his 
children seated there, except for the few months 
that Mercedes, " beloved of the King and of the 
nation," shared the throne of Alfonso XII. 

The Infanta Isabel, except for the episode of 
her exile in France, has always lived in the 
Royal Palace of Madrid, having her own quarters, 
and her little court about her. At times she has 



The Court 107 

been the butt of much popular criticism, and even 
dislike, but she has outlived it all, and is now the 
most popular woman in Spain. It must have re- 
quired no common qualities to have lived without 
discord — as a separated wife — with her brother 
and her younger sisters; then with Queen Mer- 
cedes, her cousin as well as sister-in-law; again, 
during the time of the King's widowhood and 
her own elevation to the rank of Princess of 
Asturias, and, finally, since the second marriage 
of her brother, and his untimely death, with 
Maria Cristina and her young nephew and nieces. 
One thing is to be said in favour of Isabel II. 
Deprived of all ordinary education herself, as a 
part of the evil policy of her mother, she was care- 
ful that her own children should not have to 
complain of the same neglect. One and all have 
been thoroughly educated: the Infanta Paz, now 
married to a Bavarian Archduke, has shown con- 
siderable talent as a poetess; and the Infanta 
Isabel is universally acknowledged to be a clever 
and a cultivated woman, inheriting much of her 
mother's charm of manner, and noted for ready 
wit and quick repartee. Her popularity, as I 
have said, is great, for she is careful to keep up 
all the Spanish customs. She is constantly to be 
seen in public, and, above and beyond all things, 
she never fails in attendance at the bull-fight, 
wearing the white mantilla. This alone would 
cover a multitude of sins, supposing the Infanta 
to be credited with them; but there has never 



108 Spanish Life 

been a breath of scandal connected with her. 
She is very devout, and never fails in the correct 
religious duties and public appearances. At the 
fair, and on Noche buena, she fills her carriage 
with the cheap toys and sweetmeats which mean 
so much to Spanish children, and she must be a 
veritable fairy godmother to those who come 
within her circle. She takes a close personal in- 
terest in many sisterhoods and societies for the 
help of the poor. In a word, she is muy simp dtica 
and muy Espanola. What could one say more ? 

A gala procession in Madrid is something to be 
remembered, if it be only for the wealth of mag- 
nificent embroideries and fabrics displayed. The 
royal carriages are drawn by eight horses, having 
immense plumes of ostrich feathers, of the royal 
colours, yellow and red, on their heads, and 
gorgeous hangings of velvet, with massive gold 
embroideries reaching almost to the ground; the 
whole of the harness and trappings glitter with 
gold and silk. The grooms, leading each horse, 
are equally magnificently attired, their dresses 
being also one mass of needlework of gold on 
velvet. Equerries, outriders, and military guards 
precede and surround the royal carriages, and 
the cavalcade is lengthened by having a coche de 
respcdo, caparisoned with equal splendour, fol- 
lowing each one in which a royal person is being 
conveyed. Behind come the carriages of the 
Grandes, according to rank, all drawn by at least 
six horses, with trappings little, if at all, inferior 



The Court 109 

to those of the Court, and each with its enormous 
plume of gaily-coloured ostrich feathers, showing 
the livery of its owner. In addition to all this 
grandeur, the balconies of the great houses lining 
the route of the processions display priceless heir- 
looms of embroideries, hanging before each win- 
dow from basement to roof. If these ancient 
decorations could speak, what a strange story 
they might tell of the processions they have seen 
pass ! In honour of the victories over the Moors; 
of the heroes of the New World; of the miserable 
murders of the Autos-da-fe ; of the entry of the 
Rey absoluto, to inaugurate the " Terror," on to 
the contemptible " galas " of Isabel II., supposed 
to keep the people quiet; and, almost the last, the 
entry of Alfonso XII., after he had put an end 
to the Carlist war! On the day of rejoicing 
for " I,a Gloriosa " there was no such display, 
although all Madrid was en fete. It was the 
triumph of the people, and their heirlooms do not 
take the form of priceless embroideries. 

In former days the receptions at the Palace 
were known as besamaiios (to kiss hand). On 
Holy Thursday the Royal Family and all the 
Court visit seven churches on foot — at least, that 
is the correct number, though sometimes not 
strictly adhered to. As no vehicular traffic is 
allowed on that day or on Good Friday, the 
streets where the royal procession pass are swept 
and laid with fresh sand. The ladies are in gala 
costume, and drag their trains behind them, all 



no 



Spanish Life 



wearing the national mantilla. All Madrid also 
visits its seven or less number of churches, pass- 
ing without obeisance before the high altars, on 
which there is no Host, — as the people will tell 
you su Majestad is dead, — and after the funcion is 
over there is a general parade in the Puerta del 
Sol and the Carrera de San Geronimo, to show 
off the smart costumes of the ladies, while the 
officers sit in chairs outside the Government offices 
and smoke, admiring the prospect. 




CHAPTER VII 

POPULAR AMUSEMENTS 

NOTHING strikes one so much in studying 
the popular customs and pleasures of Spain 
as the antiquity of them all. Constantly one 
finds one's self back in prehistoric times, and to 
date only from the days when Spain was a Roman 
province is almost modernity. No one can travel 
through Spain, or spend any time there, without 
becoming aware that, however many other forms 
of recreation there may be, two are universal and 
all-absorbing in their hold on the widely differing 
provinces — dancing and the bull-ring. In the 
Basque Provinces, the national game of fielofa, sl 
species of tennis, played without rackets, is still 
kept up, and is jealously cultivated in the larger 
towns, such as Vitoria, San Sebastian, and Bil- 
bao. In Madrid at the present time it is played 
in large courts built on purpose, and attracts 
many strangers. To view it, however, as a na- 
tional sport, one should see it in some of the moun- 
tain villages, where it is still the great recreation 
for Sundays and religious fiestas. The working- 
classes also play at throwing the hammer or 

in 



ii2 Spanish Life 

crowbar. This is more especially the case 
in the Northern provinces, where the workmen 
are a sound, healthy, and sober race, enjoying 
simple and healthy amusements, and affording 
an excellent example to those of countries con- 
sidering themselves much more highly civilised. 

Pigeon-shooting, which was a great favourite 
with the late King Alfonso XII., and was made 
fashionable among the aristocracy in Madrid by 
him, is a very old sport — if it deserves the name 
— among the Valencians. Near La Pechina, at 
Valencia, where the great tiro de las palomas takes 
place, was found, in 1759, an inscription: Soda- 
licium vernarum colcntcs hid. This, Ford tells us, 
was an ancient cofradid to Isis, which paid for 
her adto. Cock-fighting is still practised in most 
of the Spanish towns, as well as in Valencia, the 
regular cock-pits being constantly frequented in 
Madrid; but it is looked upon as suited only to 
barrio' 's bajos, and is not much, if at all, patron- 
ised even by the middle classes. It is said by 
those who have seen it to be particularly brutal ; 
but it was never a very humanising amusement 
when practised by the English nobility not such 
a very long time back. 

Whatever amusements, however, may be popu- 
lar in the towns, or in particular provinces, the gui- 
tar and the dance are universal. So much has been 
written about the Spanish national dances that 
an absurd idea prevails in England that they are 
all very shocking and indecent. It is necessary, 



Popular Amusements 113 

however, to go very much out of one's way, and 
to pay a good round sum, to witness those gypsy 
dances which have come down unchanged from 
the remotest ages. As Ford truly says, " Their 
character is completely Oriental, and analogous 
to the ghawarsee of the Egyptians and the Hindoo 
iiautch" " The well-known statue at Naples of 
the Venere Callipige is the undoubted representa- 
tion of a Cadiz dancing-girl, probably of Telethusa 
herself." These dances have nothing whatever 
in common with the national dances as now to be 
seen on the Spanish stage. They are never per- 
formed except by gypsies, in their own quarter of 
Seville, and are now generally gotten up as a 
show for money. Men passing through Seville go 
to these performances, as an exhibition of what 
delighted Martial and Horace, but they do not 
generally discuss them afterwards with their lady 
friends, and to describe one of these more than 
doubtful dances as being performed by guests in 
a Madrid drawing-room, as an English lady jour- 
nalist did a short time ago in the pages of a 
respectable paper, is one of those libels on Spain 
which obtain currency here out of sheer igno- 
rance of the country and the people. 

Wherever two or three men and women of the 
lower classes are to be seen together in Spain dur- 
ing their play-time, there is a guitar, with singing 
and dancing. The verses sung are innumerable 
short stanzas by unknown authors; many, per- 
haps, improvised at the moment. The jota, the 

8 



ii4 Spanish Life 

malagtiena, and the seguidilla are combinations 
of music, song, and dance; the last two bear dis- 
tinct indications of Oriental origin; each form is 
linked to a traditional air, with variations. The 
malaguena is Andalusian, and the jota is Ara- 
gonese; but both are popular in Castile. All are 
love-songs, most of them of great grace and 
beauty . Some writers complain that some of these 
dance-songs are coarse and more or less indecent; 
others aver that they never degenerate into coarse- 
ness. Quien sabe f Perhaps it is a case of Honi 
soil qui mal y pense. In any case, throughout the 
length and breadth of Spain, outside the wayside 
venta, or the barber's shop, in the patios of inns, 
or wherever holiday-makers congregate, there is 
the musician twanging his guitar, there are the 
dancers twirling about in obvious enjoyment to 
the accompaniment of the stamping, clapping, 
and encouraging cries of the onlookers, and the 
graceful little verse, with its probably weird and 
plaintive cadence: 

Bra tan dichoso autes 
De encontrarte en mi canimo ! 
Y, sin embargo, no siento 
El haberte conocido. 

I was so happy before 

I had met you on my way ! 

And yet there is no regret 

That I have learned to know you. 

The malaguena and the seguidilla, which is 



Popular Amusements 115 

more complicated, are generally seen on the stage 
only in Madrid, where they must charm all who 
can appreciate the poetry of motion. The dance 
of the peasant in Castile is always the j'ola Ara- 
gonesa. The part the tambourine and the 
castanets play in these dances must be seen and 
heard to be understood : they punctuate not only 
the music, but also the movement, the sentiment, 
and the refrain. The Andaluces excel in playing 
on the castanets. These are, according to Ford, 
the " Baetican crusmata and crotola of the an- 
cients ' ' : and crotola is still a Spanish term for the 
tambourine. Little children may be seen snap- 
ping their fingers or clicking two bits of slate 
together, in imitation of the castanet player; but 
the continuous roll, or succession of quick taps, is 
an art to be learned only by practice. The cas- 
tanets are made of ebony, and are generally 
decorated with bunches of smart ribbons, which 
play a great part in the dance. 

The popular instrument in the Basque and 
Northern provinces is the bagpipe, and the dances 
are quite different from those of the other parts 
of Spain. The zortico zorisco, or " evolution of 
eight," is danced to sound of tambourines, fifes, 
and a kind of flageolet — el silbato, resembling the 
rude instruments of the Roman PifFerari — prob- 
ably of the same origin. 

Theatrical representations have always been a 
very popular form of recreation among the in- 
habitants of the Iberian continent, from the days 



n6 Spanish Life 



when the plays were acted by itinerant perform- 
ers, " carrying all their properties in a sack, the 
stage consisting of four wooden benches, covered 
with rough boards, a blanket suspended at the 
back, to afford a green-room, in which some 
musician sang, without accompaniment, old bal- 
lads to enliven the proceedings." This is Cer- 
vantes' s description of the national stage in the 
time of his immediate predecessor, L,ope de 
Rueda. 

The Spanish zarzuela appears to have been the 
forerunner and origin of all musical farce and 
"opera comique," only naturalised in our country 
during the present generation. The theatres in 
all the provinces are always full, always popular; 
the pieces only run for short periods, a perpetual 
variety being aimed at by the managers — a thing 
easily to be understood when one remembers 
that the same audience, at any rate in the boxes 
and stalls, frequent them week in, week out. 
In Madrid, with a population of five hundred 
thousand inhabitants, there are nineteen theatres. 
With the exception of the first-class theatres, the 
people pay two reales (5^.) for each small act or 
piece, and the audience changes many times dur- 
ing the evening, a constant stream coming and 
going. Long habit and familiarity with good 
models have made the lower class of playgoers 
critical; their judgment of a piece, or of an actor, 
is always good and worth having. 

The religious Jies fas must also count among the 



Popular Amusements 1 1 7 

amusements of the people in Spain. Whether it 
be the Holy Week in Seville or Toledo, the 
Romerta of Santiago, the Veladas, or vigils, of 
the great festivals, or the day of Corpus Christi, 
which takes place on the first Thursday after 
Trinity Sunday— at all these the people turn out 
in thousands, dressed in their smartest finery, 
and combine thorough enjoyment with the per- 
formance of what they believe to be a religious 
duty. There is little or no drunkenness at these 
open-air festivities, but much gaiety, laughter, 
fluttering of fans, "throwing of sparks" from 
mischievous or languishing eyes — and at the end 
always a bull-fight. 

Here we touch the very soul of Spain. Take 
away the bull-rings, make an end of the toreros, 
and Spain is no longer Spain — perhaps a country 
counting more highly in the evolution of human- 
ity as a whole, but it will need another name if 
that day ever comes, of which there does not now 
seem to be the remotest possibility. All that can 
be said is that to-day there is a party, or there 
are individuals, in the country who profess to 
abhor the bull-fight, and wish to see it ended; it 
is doubtful if up to this time any Spaniard ever en- 
tertained such an "outlandish ' ' notion. The bull- 
fight is said to have been founded by the Moors 
of Spain, although bulls were probably fought 
with or killed in Roman amphitheatres. The 
principle on which they were founded was the dis- 
play of horsemanship, use of the lance, courage, 



u 8 Spanish Life 

coolness, and dexterity — all accomplishments of 
the Arabs of the desert. It is undoubtedly the 
latter qualities which make the sport so fascinating 
to English aficionados, of whom there are many, 
and have caused the fiestas de toros to live on in 
the affections of the whole Spanish people. In its 
earliest days, gentlemen, armed only with the 
rejon, the short spear of the original Iberian, 
about four feet long, fought in the arena with the 
bulls, and it was always a fair trial of skill and a 
display of good horsemanship. 

When the fatal race of the French Bourbons 
came to the throne, and the country was inundated 
with foreign favourites, the Court and the French 
hangers-on of the kings turned the fashion away 
from the national sport, and it gradually fell into 
the hands of the lower classes, professional bull- 
fighters taking the place of the courtly players of 
old, and these were drawn from the lowest and 
worst ranks of the masses; the sporting element, 
to a great extent, died out, and the whole spec- 
tacle became brutalised. Pan y toros (bread and 
bulls) were all the people wanted, and, crushed 
out of all manliness by their rulers, and taught a 
thirst for cruelty and bloodshed by the example 
of their religious autos-da-fe, the bull-fight be- 
came the revolting spectacle which foreigners — 
especially the English — have been so ready to 
rail against as a disgrace to the Spanish nation, 
while they rarely let an opportunity escape 
them of assisting as interested spectators at what 



Popular Amusements 119 

they condemned so loudly, and they quite for- 
got their own prize-ring, and other amusements 
equally brutal and disgraceful. If the corrida de 
toros was ever as bad as it has been described by 
some, it has improved very much of late years, 
and most of its revolting features are eliminated. 
The pack of dogs, which used to be brought in 
when a bull was dangerous to the human fighters, 
has long been done away with. The media luna, 
which we are told was identical with the instru- 
ment mentioned in yoshua y is no longer tolerated 
to hamstring the unfortunate bull; and if a horse 
is gored in the fair fight, there are men especially 
in attendance to put him out of his misery at once. 
It is doubtful whether the animal suffers more 
than, or as much as, the unhappy favourites, that 
are sent alive, and in extremest torture, to Amster- 
dam and other foreign cities, to be manufactured 
into essence of meat and such-like dainties, after 
a life of cruelly hard work in our omnibuses and 
cabs has made them no longer of use as draught 
animals. 

The bull-fighter of to-day is by no means drawn 
from the dregs of the people; there is, at any 
rate, one instance of a man of good birth and 
education attaining celebrity as a professional 
torero. He risks his life at every point of the 
conflict, and it is his coolness, his courage, his 
dexterity in giving the coup de grace so as to 
cause no suffering, that raise the audience to such 
a pitch of frenzied excitement. I speak wholly 



120 Spanish Life 

from hearsay, for I have myself only witnessed a 
corrida de novillos — in which the bulls are never 
killed, and have cushions fixed on their horns — 
and a curious fight between a bull and an ele- 
phant, who might have been described as an ' ( old 
campaigner," in which there was no bloodshed, 
and much amusement. My sympathies always 
went with the bull, — who, at least, was not con- 
sulted in the matter of the fight, — as I have seen 
the popular espada, with his own particular chulo, 
a mass of white satin and gold embroidery, driving 
out to the bull-ring on the afternoon of a fiesta, 
bowing with right royal grace and dignity to the 
plaudits of the people. I was even accused of 
having given the evil eye to one well-known 
favourite as he passed my balcony, when I 
wished, almost audibly, that the bull might have 
his turn for once in a way that afternoon. And 
he had; for the popular espada was carried out of 
the ring apparently dead, the spectators came 
back looking white and sick, and I felt like a 
very murderess until I learned later that he was 
not dead. All Madrid, almost literally, called to 
inquire for him daily, filling books of signatures, 
as if he had been an emperor at least. Person- 
ally, I was more interested in his courage after 
the event and the devotion of his clndo, who 
never left his side, but held his hands while the 
injured leg was cut off, in three separate opera- 
tions, without any anaesthetic. Eventually, he 
completely recovered, and was fitted with an 



Popular Amusements 121 

admirable mechanical cork limb in place of the 
one removed in three detachments; and my sense 
of evil responsibility was quite removed when I 
heard that his young wife was delighted to think 
that he could never enter the bull-ring as a fighter 
again, and her anxieties were at an end. 

It is quite impossible to over-estimate the popu- 
larity of the toreivs with the Spanish people. 
They are the friends and favourites of the aristoc- 
racy, the demi-gods of the populace. You never 
see one of them in the streets without an admiring 
circle of worshippers, who hang on every word 
and gesture of the great man ; and this is no cult 
of the hour, it is unceasing. They are always 
known for their generosity, not only to injured 
comrades, but to any of the poor in need. Is 
there a disaster by which many are injured — flood, 
tempest, or railway accident ? Immediately a 
bull-fight is arranged for the sufferers, and the 
whole cuadrilla will give their earnings to the 
cause. Not only so, but the private charities of 
these popular favourites are immense, and quite 
unheard of by the public. They adopt orphans, 
pay regular incomes to widows, as mere parts of 
e very-day work. They are, one and all, religious 
men; the last thing they do, before entering the 
arena with their life in their hands, is to confess 
and receive absolution in the little chapel in the 
Bull-Ring, spending some time in silent prayer 
before the altar, while the wife at home is burning 
candles to the Virgin, and offering her prayers 



122 Spanish Life 

for his safety during the whole time that the 
corrida lasts. Extreme unction is always in readi- 
ness, in case of serious accident to the torero, the 
priest (niufti) slipping into the chapel before the 
public arrive on the scene. 

Rafael Molina Lagartijo, one of the veterans of 
the bull-fighters, and an extreme favourite with 
the people for many years, died recently, after 
living for some time in comparative retirement in 
his native Cordoba. Some idea of the important 
place which these men occupy in Spanish society 
may be gathered from the numerous notices which 
appeared in the newspapers of all shades of politi- 
cal opinion after his death. I quote from the 
article which appeared in the charming little 
illustrated Blanco y Negro, of Madrid, on the 
favourite of the Spanish public. In what, to us, 
seems somewhat inflated language, but which is, 
however, quite simple and natural to the Spaniard, 
the writer began his notice thus: 

" He who has heard the magic oratory of Cas- 
telar, has listened to the singing of Gayarre, the 
declamation of Cabro, has read Zorilla, and wit- 
nessed the torear of Lagartijo, may say, without 
any kind of reservation, that there is nothing left 
for him to admire!" Having thus placed the 
popular bull-fighter on a level with orators, 
authors, and musicians of the first rank, the writer 
goes on to describe the beauties of Lagartijo' s 
play in words which are too purely technical of 
the ring to make translation possible, and adds: 



Popular Amusements 123 

" He who has not seen the great torero of Cordoba 
in the plenitude of his power will assuredly not 
comprehend why the name of Lagartijo for more 
than twenty years filled plazas and playbills, nor 
why the aficio?iados of to-day recall, in speaking 
of his death, times which can never be surpassed. 
. . . The toreo (play) of Lagartijo was always 
distinguished by its classic grace, its dignity and 
consummate art, the absence of affectation, or 
struggle for effect. In every part of the fight the 
figure of Rafael fell naturally into the most grace- 
ful attitudes; and for this reason he has always 
worn the rich dress of the torero with the best 
effect. He was the perfect and characteristic type 
of a torero, such as Spanish fancy has always im- 
agined it. L,agartijo died with his eyes fixed on 
the image of the Virgen de los Dolores, to whom 
he had always confidently committed his life of 
peril, and with the dignity and resignation of a 
good man." 

The article was illustrated with numerous por- 
traits of Don Rafael: in full torero dress in 1886; 
his very last photograph; views of him in the 
courtyard of his home in Cordoba, and outside 
the Venta San Rafael, where he took his coffee 
in the evening, and others. The notice concludes 
by saying that his life was completely dedicated 
to his property, which he managed himself, and 
he was looked upon as the guardian angel of the 
labourers on his farm. Probre Rafael ! ' ' The 
lovers of the bull-fight are lamenting the death 



124 Spanish Life 

of the torero, but the poor of Cordoba mourn the 
loss of their ' Senor Rafael.' " 

The wives of the toreros are generally celebrated 
for their beauty, their wit, and their devotion to 
their husbands — indeed, the men have a large 
choice before them when choosing their helpmates 
for life. To their wives is due much of the mak- 
ing and all the keeping up of the elaborate and 
costly dress of the torero. They are, as someone 
has said, " ferociously virtuous," and share in the 
open-handed generosity of their husbands. The 
earnings of a successful torero are very large. In 
some cases, they make as much as ^4000 or ,£5000 
a year of English money, during the height of 
their popularity, and retire to end their days in 
their native and beloved Andalucia. 

Whatever may be said by foreigners of the 
brutalising effect of the Spanish popular game, it 
certainly has no more effect on those who witness 
or practise it than fox-hunting has on English- 
men, and it is doubtful whether there is any more 
cruelty in one sport than in the other. The foxes 
are fostered and brought up for the sole purpose 
of being harried to death, without even a sem- 
blance of fair play being allowed to them, and if a 
fox-hunter risks his life it is only as a bad rider 
that he does so. There is no danger and cer- 
tainly no dignity in the English sport, even if it 
indirectly keeps up the breed of horses. 

A curious incident is related by Count Vasili 
as having happened in the Bull- Ring in Madrid 



Popular Amusements 125 

some years ago during a corrida of Cuchares, the 
celebrated espada. It is usual during fiestas of 
chanty to enclose live sparrows in the banderillas 
which it is part of the play to affix, at great risk 
to the torero, in the shoulders of the bull; the 
paper envelope bursts, and the birds are set at 
liberty. Crossing the arena, one of the men care- 
lessly hit at a bird turning wildly about in its 
efforts to escape, and killed it. " In my life," 
says the Count, " I have never seen such a spec- 
tacle. Ten thousand spectators, standing up, 
wildly gesticulating, shouting for death on the 
' cruel torero ' ; nay, some even threw themselves 
into the arena, ready to lynch the heartless 
creature ! ' ' 

Horse-racing may now be said to have been 
fairly established in Spain in most of the great 
centres, and the Hippodrome in Madrid is little 
behind one of England's popular race-courses in 
its crowds, the brilliant dresses of the ladies, and 
the enthusiasm evoked; but whether it will ever 
supersede the really national fiesta is to be 
doubted. The upper classes also affect polo, 
tennis, and croquet, and go in a good deal for 
gymnastics, fencing, and fives. 

Cycling does not appear to commend itself 
greatly to the Spanish idea of recreation. Bicy- 
cles are, of course, to be seen in the large and 
more modern towns, but they are never very 
numerous, and as far as ladies are concerned, 
may be said to have made no way. 



126 Spanish Life 

I have referred to a curious spectacle several 
times presented in Madrid, chiefly in fiestas for 
charitable purposes, where an elephant was intro- 
duced into the Bull- Ring to fight, in place of the 
usual cuadrilla of men. This was an old elephant 
named Pizarro, a great favourite of many years' 
standing with the Madrilenos. He was an 
enormous animal, but one of his tusks had been 
broken off about a third from the tip, so that he 
had only one to use in warfare or as protection. 
He was tethered in the centre of the arena, by one 
of his hind legs, to a stump about twelve inches 
high. Then the bulls were let out one at a time. 
Meanwhile, Pizarro was amusing himself by eat- 
ing oranges which were showered on him by his 
admirers on the benches. With the greatest 
coolness he continued his repast, picking up 
orange after orange with his trunk, all that he 
was careful to do being to keep his face to the 
bull, turning slowly as his enemy galloped round 
the ring trying to take him in flank. At last the 
bull prepared to charge; Pizarro packed away his 
trunk between his tusks, and quietly waited the 
onslaught. The bull rushed at him furiously; 
but the huge animal, quite good-naturedly and a 
little with the air of pitying contempt, simply 
turned aside the attack with his one complete 
horn, and as soon as the bull withdrew, a little 
nonplussed, went on picking up and eating his 
oranges as before. Bull after bull gave up the 
contest as impossible, and contentedly went out 



Popular Amusements 127 

between the cabestros sent in to fetch them. At 
last one more persistent or courageous than the 
others came bounding in. Pizarro realised at 
once that for the moment he must pause in eating 
his dessert; but he became aware at the same 
time that in turning round to face the successive 
bulls, he had gradually wound himself up close 
to the stump, and had no room to back so as to 
receive the attack. The most interesting incident 
in the whole affray was to watch the elephant 
find out, by swinging his tethered leg, first in one 
direction and then in another, how to free him- 
self. This he did, first by swinging his leg round 
and round over the stump, then by walking 
slowly round and round, always facing the bull, 
and drawing his cord farther and farther until he 
was perfectly free: then he was careful only to 
turn as on a pivot, keeping the rope at a stretch. 
Finally the bull charged at him with great fury; 
stepping slightly aside, Pizarro caught him up 
sideways on his tusks, and held him up in the air, 
perfectly impotent and mad with rage. When he 
considered the puny creature had been sufficiently 
shown his inferiority, he gently put him down, 
and the astonished and humbled bull declined 
further contest. The fighting bulls of Spain are 
wonderfully small in comparison with English 
animals, it should be said. 

Every night, after his turn at the circus was 
over poor old Pizarro used to walk home alone 
under my balcony, open his stable door with his 



128 Spanish Life 

own latch-key, or at least his trunk, and put 
himself to bed like any Christian. 

One of the most fashionable amusements in 
Madrid is to attend on the morning of the bull- 
fight while the espadas choose the particular bulls 
they wish to have as enemy, and affix their 
colours, the large rosette of ribbon which shows 
which of the toreros the bull is to meet in deadly 
conflict. The bulls are then placed in their iron 
cages in the order in which they are to enter the 
arena. The fashionable ladies and other aficion- 
ados of the sport then drive back to Madrid to 
luncheon and to prepare for the entertainment of 
the afternoon. 




CHAPTER VIII 



THE PRESS AND ITS LEADERS 



PERHAPS there are few countries where the 
influence of the Press is greater than in 
Spain, and this is largely due to the fact that 
while the journals are read by everyone, for a 
great number of the people they form the only 
literature. The free library is not yet universal 
in the country, though, doubtless, in the near 
future it may become general. In the meantime, 
every imaginable shade of political opinion has 
its organ; even the Bull-Ring has at least two 
excellently illustrated newspapers; and the extra 
sheets, printed hastily and sold immediately after 
the corrida has terminated, have an enormous 
sale. Deserving of mention is the curious little 
paper known as the " Night-cap of Madrid," be- 
cause it is supposed to be impossible for anyone 
to go to rest until he has read the late edition, 
which comes out not long before midnight. It is 
said to have no politics, and only pretends to give 
all the news of the world. There are many illus- 
trated papers, both comic and serious. The 
charmingly artistic little Blanco y Negro, beauti- 

9 

I29 



130 Spanish Life 

fully gotten up, is at the head of all the more dig- 
nified illustrated journals of the country. There 
are no kiosks; the papers are sold by children 
or by old women in the streets, and the Madrid 
night is rent by the appalling cries of these itiner- 
ant vendors of literature. For the Spanish news- 
paper is always literature, which is a good deal 
more than can be said for some of the English 
halfpenny Press. Whatever may be the politics 
of the particular journal, its Castellano is perfect; 
perhaps a little stilted or pompous, but always 
dignified and well-written. 

The journalists of Madrid have a special facility 
for saying with an air of extreme innocence what 
they, for various reasons, do not care to express 
quite openly. Allegories, little romances, stories 
of fact full of clever words of ! ' double sense ' ' make 
known to the initiated, or those who know how to 
read between the lines, much that might other- 
wise awaken the disagreeable notice of the censor, 
when there is one. There is an air of good- 
natured raillery which takes off the edge of politi- 
cal rancour, and keeps up the amenities and the 
dignity of the Spanish Press. Only the other 
day one of the leading English journals pointed 
out what a dignified part the Press of Madrid, of 
every shade of politics, had played in the recent 
effort made by some foreign newspapers — of a 
class which so far does not exist in Spain — to 
make mischief and awaken national jealousy be- 
tween England and Spain on the subject of the 



The Press and its Leaders 13 l 

works now being carried out by the English 
Government at Gibraltar. The Spanish news- 
papers, of all shades of opinion, have made it 
abundantly evident that their country entertains 
no unworthy suspicion of England's good faith, 
and has not the smallest intention of being led 
into strained or otherwise than perfectly friendly 
relations with their old allies of the Peninsular 
War, to gratify the rabid enmity of a section of a 
Press foreign to both countries. This is, perhaps, 
the more remarkable because a certain amount 
of misunderstanding of England exists among 
some elements of the Spanish Press. 

The Liberal party in Spain is, in fact, the party 
of progress, and the nation has at last awakened 
from its condition of slavery under unworthy 
rulers, and is practically united in its determina- 
tion to return to its place among the nations of 
Europe. 

There are many shades of Liberalism, and even 
Republicanism, but, as will be seen in another 
place, the real welfare of the people, and not the 
success of a mere political party, is the underlying 
motive of all, however wild and unpractical may 
be some of the dreams for the carrying out of 
these ideas of universal progress. It is impossible 
for a Spaniard to conceive of maligning or be- 
littling his own country for merely party purposes; 
and, therefore, when he finds an English news- 
paper calling itself " Liberal" he imagines the 
word to have the same signification it has in his 



13 2 Spanish Life 

own country. So it has come to pass that many 
of the worst misrepresentations — to use a very 
mild term — of a portion of the English Press have 
been reproduced in Spanish newspapers, and be- 
lieved by their readers. 

Among the principal newspapers, in a crowd of 
less important ones, La Epoca, Conservative 
and dynastic ranks first; this is the journal of the 
aristocrats, of the " upper ten thousand," or those 
who aspire to be so, and it ranks as the doyen of 
the whole Press. Its circulation is not so large as 
that of some of the other papers, but its clientele 
is supposed to be of the best. El Nacional is also 
Conservative, but belonging to the party of 
Romero Robledo. What the exact politics of 
that variation of Conservatism might be, it is 
difficult, I might almost say impossible, for a 
stranger to say. If you were told nothing about 
it, and took it up accidentally to read of current 
events, you would certainly suppose it to be inde- 
. pendent, with a decidedly Liberal tendency. Still 
it calls itself Conservative. 

El Correo is Liberal, of the special type of 
Sagasta, the present Prime Minister. El Espanol, 
which also gives one the impression of independ- 
ence, is Liberal after the manner of Gemaro. 
El Heraldo, calling itself Diario Indepe?idente, is 
credited with being the Liberal organ of Canal- 
ijas. El Liberal and El Pais are Republican, and 
El Correo Espanol is Carlist, or clerical. This 
paper appears to be looked upon a good deal in 



The Press and its Leaders 133 

the nature of a joke by its colleagues, and quota- 
tions from it are always accompanied by notes of 
exclamation. 

La Corresp07idencia de Espana is a paper all by 
itself, an invention of Spanish journalism, and its 
unprecedented success is due to many of its quite 
unique peculiarities. Its originator, now a mil- 
lionaire, is proud of relating that he arrived in 
Madrid with two dollars in his pocket. He it was 
who conceived the brilliant idea of founding a 
journal which should be the special organ of all. 
11 Diario politico independiente, y de noticias : Eco 
impartial de la opinio?i y de laprensa" he calls it, 
and the fourth page, devoted to advertisements, 
would make the fortune of ten others. His boast 
was that it had no editor, paid no writers, and 
employed no correspondents. It simply possessed 
a certain number of ' ' caterers ' ' for news, who 
thrust themselves everywhere, picking up morsels 
of news — good, bad, and indifferent, for the most 
part scribbled in pencil and thrown into a recep- 
tacle from which they are drawn in any order, or 
none, and handed to the printer as "copy"; 
coming out in short, detached paragraphs of un- 
even length, ranging from three lines to twenty. 
Extracts from foreign newspapers, official news, 
provincial reports, money matters, religious an- 
nouncements, accidents, everything comes out 
pell-mell — absolutely all (< the voices of the flying 
day," in Madrid and everywhere else, in one 
jumble, without order or sequence, one paragraph 



134 Spanish Life 

frequently being a direct contradiction to another 
in the same sheet. There are three editions dur- 
ing the day, but the " Night-cap," which sums up 
them all, appears about ten o'clock or later, and 
it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that it is 
bought by almost every householder in the city. 

The nature of the Corresponds?! a' a has changed 
very little since its earliest days. It is a little 
more dignified, condescends even to short articles 
on current subjects of interest, but it is the same 
universal provider of news and gossip as ever. It 
goes with the times; so far as it has any leanings 
at all, it is with the Government of the hour; but 
it is for the most part quite impersonal, and it 
makes itself agreeable to all parties alike. Santa 
Ana, the clever initiator of this new and highly 
successful adventure in journalism, has two other 
very prosperous commercial enterprises in his 
hands — the manufacture of paper for printing 
and the supply of natural flowers. He himself is 
an enormous and indefatigable worker, personally 
looks after his various businesses, especially the 
Correspondencia, and, mindful of his own early 
difficulties, he has created benefit societies for his 
workmen. 

He who, being a foreigner, would attempt to 
understand Spanish politics, deserves to be 
classed with the bravest leaders of forlorn hopes. 
In the first place, it is doubtful whether Spaniards 
understand them themselves, although they talk, 
for the most part, of nothing else — except bulls. 



The Press and its Leaders 135 

Whenever and wherever two or three men or 
boys are gathered together, you may be quite 
certain as to the subject of their conversation — 
that is, if they show signs of excitement and in- 
terest in the matter under discussion. Each man 
you meet gives you the whole matter in a nut- 
shell: he has studied politics ever since he was 
able to talk; all the other innumerable parties 
besides his own are nada ! he can tell you exactly 
what is wrong with his country, and, what is 
more, exactly how it may all be made right. The 
only thing which puzzles one is that all the nut- 
shells are different, and, as there are an unlimited 
number of them, all that one carefully learns to- 
day has to be as carefully unlearned to-morrow, 
and a fresh adjustment made of one's political 
spectacles. After all, however, this is very much 
what would happen in any country if we were 
in turn to sit at the feet of successive teachers, 
and try to bring their doctrines into any kind of 
accord. The peculiarity in Spain lies rather in 
the multiplicity of private political opinions and 
the energy with which they are expressed, and 
in the fact that they are all honest. 

Emerson has somewhere said that " inconsist- 
ency is the bugbear of little minds." The Span- 
ish politician has evidently not a little mind, for 
he has no fear whatever of inconsistency, nor, in 
fact, of making a volte-face whenever he sees any 
reason for doing so. There are Conservatives, 
Liberals, Republicans, Radicals, Socialists, as in 



136 Spanish Life 

other countries, but there are, besides all these, 
an infinite number of shades and tones of each 
political belief, each represented, as we have 
seen, by a newspaper of its own, and, for the 
most part, bearing the name of one man. It 
would seem, then, that you have only to make 
yourself acquainted with the opinions, or rather 
with the political acts, of that one man, and there 
you are! Vain and fond fancy! He has been a 
rabid Republican, perhaps, or he has belonged, at 
least, to the party which put up in Madrid in 
conspicuous letters, "The bastard race of the 
Bourbons is for ever fallen. Fit punishment of 
their obstinacy!" but you will find him to-day 
lending all the force of his paper to the support of 
the Queen Regent, and at the same time allying 
himself with the various classes of Republicans, 
even to the followers of Zorilla, who have, at any 
rate till now, been consistent enemies and haters 
of the Bourbon. 

Senor Don Romero Robledo, one among the 
politicians of the day who possess the gift of per- 
fect oratory, so common among his countrymen, is 
an example of this puzzling " open mind." He 
appeared first in the character of revolutionist in 
1868 ; then he became the Minister of the Interior 
in Amadeo's short reign, held somewhat aloof 
from the wild experiment in a republic of Caste- 
lar, joined the party of Don Alfonso on the eve of 
its success, and supported Canovas del Castillo in 
his somewhat retrograde policy in the restoration 



The Press and its Leaders 137 

of the very Bourbon whom he had announced as 
"banished forever," and, in fact, by his admirable 
genius for organising his party, enabled the Gov- 
ernment of Cauovas to continue to exist. It is 
said of him that he " buys men as one would buy 
sheep," and that he will serve any cause so long 
as he has the management of it, or rather so long 
as he may pull the wires. Comte Vasili says of 
him: "In politics, especially Conservative politics, 
men like Romero Robledo are necessary, finding 
easily that 'the end justifies the means,' ener- 
getic, ambitious, always in the breach opposing 
their qualities to the invasions of the parties of 
extremes. ' ' This was written of him some fifteen 
years ago by one eminently qualified to judge. 
At the present moment we find Senor Romero 
Robledo refusing office, but consulted by the 
Queen Regent in every difficulty. In the late 
crisis, when the Conservative party under Silvela, 
called into office for the sake of carrying the ex- 
tremely unpopular marriage of the Princess of 
Asturias with the Count of Caserta, had nearly 
managed to wreck the monarchy, or, at any rate, 
the regency, and to bring the always dangerous 
clerical question to an acute stage by suspending 
the constitutional guarantees over the whole of 
Spain, it was Romero Robledo who told the Queen 
quite plainly that before anything else could be 
done the guarantees must be restored, that the 
liberties of the people could not be interfered 
with, and that, in short, the liberal party must 



138 Spanish Life 

be called into office. Then we find him holding 
meetings in which Conservatives, Republicans, 
even Zorillistas, all combined, enthusiastically de- 
claring that they are on the side of order and 
progress, agreeing to hold up England, under her 
constitutional monarch, as the most really demo- 
cratic and free of all nations, since in no other 
country, republican or otherwise, is the govern- 
ment, as a matter of fact, so entirely in the hands 
of the people; swearing eternal enmity against 
the interference of the clergy in government or 
in education, but counselling " quiet determina- 
tion without rancour or bigotry in dealing with 
those of the clergy who openly, or through the 
confessional, attempt to usurp authority which 
it is intended they shall never again acquire in 
Spain." In fact, to read Senor Romero Robledo's 
discourses on these occasions, and the excellent 
articles in the newspaper which represents his 
views, El National, one would imagine the Golden 
Age to have dawned for Spain. Liberty, honour, 
real religion, progress in science, art, manufac- 
tures, trade, the purification of politics, the ideal 
of good government — these are only a few of the 
things to which this amalgamation of parties is 
solemnly pledged. 

One thing, at least, is promising among so 
much that might be put down as "words, words " : 
a general agreement as to the wisdom of making 
the best of the present situation, opposing a firm 
resistance to any attempt at a return to absolut- 



The Press and its Leaders 139 

ism on the part of the monarchy, or domination 
in temporal matters by the Church; but no 
change, no more pronunciamientos, no more civil 
wars. Whenever the political parties of a country 
merge their differences of opinion in one common 
cause, the end may be foreseen. This was what 
happened in 1868; and if the party of Romero 
Robledo is what it represents itself to be and 
holds together, we may hope to see the reign of the 
young Alfonso XIII. open with good auguries 
this year (1902), as it seems to be certain that he 
is to attain his majority two years in advance of 
the usual time. 

The life, political career, and retirement of 
Emilio Castelar is one of the most pathetic pic- 
tures in history, and one altogether Spanish in 
character. It was after Amadeo had thrown 
down his crown, exclaiming, "A son of Savoy 
does not wear a crown on sufferance ! ' ' that the 
small party of Republicans — which Prim had said 
did not exist, and which had in fact only become a 
party at all during the disastrous period of un- 
certainty between the expulsion of Isabel II. and 
the election of the Italian prince — edged its way 
to the front, and Castelar became the head of 
something much worse than a paper constitution 
— a republic of visionaries. Don Quijote de la 
Mancha himself could scarcely have made a more 
pure-intentioned yet more unpractical President. 
Castelar, with his honest, unsophisticated opinions 
and theories, his unexampled oratory, which is 



i4-o Spanish Life 

said to have carried away crowds of men who did 
not understand or hear a word that he said, with 
the rhythm of his language, the simple majesty 
and beauty of his delivery, launched the nation 
into a government that might have been suited 
to the angels in heaven, or to what the denizens 
of this earth may become in far distant aeons of 
evolution — a republic of dreams, headed by a 
dreamer. The awakening was rude, but it was 
efficient. When Castelar found that in place of 
establishing a millennium of peace and universal 
prosperity, he had let loose over the land all the 
elements of disorder and of evil, he had the great- 
ness to acknowledge himself mistaken: his own 
reputation never troubled him, and he admitted 
that the Cortes, from which he had hoped so 
much, worked evil, not good. It is said that he 
himself called on General Pavia, the Captain- 
General of Madrid, to clear them out. The depu- 
ties — Castelar had withdrawn — sat firm: " Death 
rather than surrender," they cried. Pavia, how- 
ever, ordered his men to fire once down the empty 
lobbies, and the hint was enough: the Cortes 
dispersed, and Pavia, had he so minded it, might 
have been military dictator of Spain. But he had 
no such ambition, though there were not wanting 
those who ascribed it to him. 

As for Castelar, when angrily charged with 
inconsistency, he said: "Charge me with incon- 
sistency, if you please. I will not defend myself. 
Have I the right to prefer my own reputation to 



The Press and its Leaders 141 

the safety of my country ? Let my name perish, 
let posterity pronounce its anathema against me, 
let my contemporaries send me into exile! Little 
care I! I have lived long enough! But let not 
the Republic perish through my weaknesses, and, 
above all, let no one say that Spain has perished 
in our hands! " Castelar went back to his chair 
of philosophy, which he had never resigned, poor 
as he left it, to the modest home and the devoted 
sister whom he loved so well — and no one 
laughed ! Is there really any other country than 
Spain where such things can happen ? His en- 
thusiasm, his high-mindedness, his failures, his 
brave acknowledgment that he had failed, were 
accepted by the country in the exact spirit in 
which he had offered himself to her service, and 
the memory of Castelar stands as high to-day as 
ever it did in the respectful admiration of his fel- 
low-countrymen. 




CHAPTER IX 

POLITICAL GOVERNMENT 

THE Government of Spain ever since the re- 
storation of Don Alfonso XII. has been in 
reality what it was only in name before — a consti- 
tutional monarchy. During the first years of the 
young King's reign, Canovas del Castillo being 
Prime Minister, there was a distinctly reactionary 
tendency from the Liberalism of Prim and the 
revolutionary party of 1868. It was almost im- 
possible that it should be otherwise, considering 
the wild tumult of the varying opinions and the 
experiments in government that the country had 
passed through; and some of the difficulties of 
the situation to-day are no doubt due to the con- 
cessions made to the ultra-Conservative party in 
the re-introduction of the religious orders, which 
had been suppressed during the regency of Cris- 
tina, and had never been tolerated even during 
the reign of the piadosa, Isabel II. 

Prim had, from the first moment that the suc- 
cess of the Revolution was assured and the Queen 
and her camarilla had crossed the frontier to seek 
asylum in France, declared for a constitutional 

142 



Political Government 143 

monarchy. "How can you have a monarchy 
without a king?" he was asked by Castelar. 
" How can you have a republic without republi- 
cans ! ' ' was his reply. He might have made him- 
self king or military dictator, but he wanted to 
be neither; nor would he hear of Montpensier, to 
whom Topete and Serrano had pledged them- 
selves. 

The House of Savoy was the next heir to the 
Spanish throne, had the Bourbons become extinct, 
and to it the first glances of the Spanish king- 
maker were directed, but difficulties arose from 
the dislike of the Duke of Aosta himself to the 
scheme. A prince of some Liberal country was 
what was wanted: there was even some talk of 
offering the crown to the English Duke of Edin- 
burgh, while one party dreamed of an Iberian 
amalgamation, and suggested Dom Luis of Portu- 
gal or his father Dom Ferdinand, the former 
regent. The candidature of Prince Leopold of 
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who was a Roman 
Catholic, was looked upon with a certain amount 
of favour, but at the eleventh hour Napoleon III. 
made this scheme a pretext for the quarrel with 
Prussia which led to the fateful war of 1870 and 
1 87 1. Eventually, almost two years after the 
outbreak of the Revolution, Amadeo of Savoy 
was chosen by the Cortes at Madrid by a majority 
of one hundred and five votes, only twenty-three 
being given for Montpensier and sixty-three for 
a republic. 



T44 Spanish Life 

On the day that King Amadeo set foot on 
Spanish soil Prim was assassinated; it was per- 
fectly well known at whose instigation, and the 
man whom the Spaniards themselves said was 
demasiado honcsto (too honourable) for the hotch- 
potch of political parties into which he was thrown 
without a friend or helper, began his vain effort 
to rule a foreign nation in a constitutional man- 
ner. After he had thrown up the thankless task 
in despair, the absurd Republic of Zorilla and 
Castelar made confusion wo^se confounded, and 
it was with a feeling of relief to all that the pro- 
nunciamiento of Martinez Campos at Muviedro 
put an end to the Spanish Republic under Ser- 
rano, and proclaimed the son of Isabel II. as 
King. 

He was but a lad of seventeen, but he had been 
educated in England; he was known to be brave, 
dignified, and extremely liberal, so that he was 
acclaimed throughout Spain, and during his short 
life he fully justified the high opinion formed of 
him. But the Government of Canovas was re- 
actionary, and when the unexpected death of Al- 
fonzo XII. left his young wife, the present Maria 
Cristina of Austria, a widow under exceptionally 
trying circumstances, Canovas himself placed his 
resignation in her hands, knowing that the Lib- 
erals were the party of the nation, and promised 
to give his own best efforts to work with what 
had up to then been his Opposition, for the good 
of the country and of the expected child, who a 



Political Government 145 

few months later had the unusual experience of 
being " born a king." 

Whatever may be said about the present Regent, 
— though in truth little but good has been said or 
thought of her, — she has been most loyal to the 
constitution, holding herself absolutely aloof from 
all favouritism or even apparent predilection. 
She has devoted her life to the education of her 
son and to his physical well-being, for he was not 
a strong child in his early years, and she has done 
her best, possibly more than any but a woman 
could have done, to keep the ship of State not 
only afloat, but making headway during the 
minority of her son. 

Two things militate against good government 
in Spain, and will continue to do so until the 
whole system is changed: what is known in the 
country as caciquismo, and the pernicious custom 
of changing all the Government officials, down to 
the very porter at the doors, with every change of 
ministry. It is much, however, that the Govern- 
ment does go out in a constitutional manner in- 
stead of by a military pronunciamiento on each 
occasion, as in the old days; also that a civilian 
and not a soldier is always at the head of it. In 
reality, there are two great parties in Madrid, 
and only two: the Empleados and the Cesantes — 
in plain English, the "Ins" and the "Outs." 
Whatever ministry is in power has behind it an 
immense army of provincial governors, secretaries, 
clerks, down to the porters, and probably even the 



J4 6 Spanish Life 

charwomen who clean out the Government offices. 
This state of things is repeated over the whole 
country, and there is naturally created and sus- 
tained an enormous amount of bribery and cor- 
ruption, which is continually at work discrediting 
all governments and giving to Spanish affairs that 
" bad name " which, according to our old proverb, 
is as bad as hanging. The Cesantes haunt certain 
cafes and possess certain newspapers, and the 
Empleados other cafes and other papers. The 
" Outs" and the " Ins" meet at night to discuss 
their prospects, and wonderful are the stories in- 
vented at these reunions, some of which even find 
their way into English newspapers — if their cor- 
respondents are not up to the ways of Spain — for 
we read ludicrous accounts of things supposed to 
have been taking place, and are treated to solemn 
prophecies of events never likely to occur, even 
in first-class English journals. It is naturally the 
interest of these subordinate employees of a 
vicious system to hasten or retard the day that 
shall see their respective chiefs change position, 
and if a few plausible untruths can do it, be as- 
sured they will not be wanting. Both in the 
popular novels, de costumbres, and in actual life, 
it is the commonest thing to hear a man described 
as a Cesante, in the same way that we should 
speak of him as being an engineer or a doctor, as 
if being out of place were just as much an em- 
ployment as any other. 

One thing that appears strange to a foreigner 



Political Government 147 

about these Ccsantes is that the}- never seem even 
to dream of seeking other employment; they 
simply sit down to wait until their particular 
patron is " in " again, and in the old days they 
were a constant force making for the pronimcia- 
miento which would sooner or later make a place 
for them. As they had no means of existence 
except when in receipt of Government pay, it is 
easy to understand that, according to their views, 
the}' had to prepare for the evil day which as- 
suredly awaited them, by appropriating and exact- 
ing all the money that was possible during their 
short reign of power. Probably the onty differ- 
ence between the highest and the lowest official 
was in the actual amount he was able to acquire 
when he was " in." 

This system, subversive of all efficient service, 
and leading inevitably to the worst evils of mis- 
appropriation of the national funds, had perhaps 
its worst aspects in the colonies. A Government 
berth in Cuba was a recognised means of making 
a fortune, or of rehabilitating a man who had 
ruined himself by gambling at home. Appoint- 
ments were made, not because the man was fitted 
for the post, but because he had influence — fre- 
quently that of some lady — with the person with 
whom the appointments lay, or because he was in 
need of an opportunity for making money easily. 
That there have always been statesmen and sub- 
ordinate officials above all such self-seeking, men 
of punctilious honour and of absolutely clean 



148 Spanish Life 

hands, is known to all; but such men — as Kspar- 
tero, for instance — too often threw up the sponge, 
and would have naught to do with governing nor 
with office of any description. Espartero, who 
is generally spoken of as the "Aristides of Spain," 
when living in his self-sought retirement at Lo- 
grofio, even refused to be proclaimed as King 
during the days when the crown was going a- 
begging, though he would probably have been 
acclaimed as the saviour of his country by a large 
majority. Long years of foreign kings and their 
generally contemptible favourites and ministers, 
long years of tyranny and corruption in high 
places, leavened the whole mass of Spanish 
bureaucracy; but the heart of the nation re- 
mained sound, and those who would understand 
Spain must draw a distinct line between her pro- 
fessional place-hunters and her people. 

Caciqueism is a mere consequence or outcome 
from the state of affairs already described. While 
the deputies to the Cortes are supposed to be 
freely elected as representatives by the people, in 
reality they are simply nominees of the heads of 
the two political powers which have been see- 
sawing as ministers for the last sixteen years. 
Two men since the assassination of Canovas have 
alternately occupied the post of First Minister of 
the Crown: Don Praxadis Mateo Sagasta, one of 
those mobile politicians who always fall on their 
feet whatever happens, and Francisco Silvela, 
who may be described as a Liberal-Conservative 



Political Government 149 

in contrast to Canovas, who was a Tory of the 
old school, and aspired to be a despot. Toryism, 
though the word is unknown there, dies hard 
in Spain; but there are not wanting signs that 
the Conservatives of the new school have the 
progress and emancipation of the country quite as 
much at heart as any Liberal. It was the Con- 
servative National that in a leading article of 
March 29th in 1901, under the head of " Vicious 
Customs," called attention to the crowds of place- 
hunters who invade the public offices after a 
change of ministry, and to the barefaced im- 
pudence of some of their claims for preferment. 
" The remedy is in the hands of the advisers of 
the Crown," it continued. " Let them shut the 
doors of their offices against influence and in- 
trigue, keep Empleaalos of acknowledged compe- 
tence permanently in their posts, and not appoint 
new ones without the conviction that they have 
capacity and aptitude for the work they will have 
to do. By this means, if the problem be not en- 
tirely solved, it will at least be in train for a solu- 
tion satisfactory at once for a good administration 
and for the highest interests of the State." 

The way in which the wire-pulling is done from 
Madrid, in case of an election, is through the 
cacique, or chief person in each constituency; 
hence the name of the process. This person may 
be the Civil Governor, the Alcalde, or merely a 
rich landowner or large employer of labour in 
touch with the Government : the pressure brought 



150 Spanish Life 

to bear may be of two sorts, taking the form of 
bribery or threat. The voters who hang on to 
the skirts of the cacique may hope for Government 
employment, or they may fear a sudden call to 
pay up arrears of rent or of taxes; the hint is 
given from headquarters, or a Government candi- 
date is sent down. It matters little how the thing 
is done so long as the desired end is accomplished. 
Speaking of the general election which took place 
last June, and in which it was well known before- 
hand that the Liberals were to be returned in a 
large majority, one of the Madrid newspapers 
wrote: " The people will vote, but assuredly the 
deputies sent up to the Cortes will not be their 
representatives, nor their choice." 

We, who have for so many years enjoyed a 
settled government, forget how different all this 
is in a country like Spain, which has oftener had 
to be reproached for enduring bad government 
than for a readiness to effect violent changes, or 
to try new experiments; but the progress actually 
made since the Revolution of 1868 has really been 
extraordinary, and it has gone steadily forward. 
Spain has always been celebrated for the making 
of co?ive?iios — a word which is scarcely correctly 
translated by " arrangement." During the Carl- 
ist wars, the Government, and even generals in 
command, made convenios with the insurgents to 
allow convoys to pass without interference, money 
value sometimes being a factor in the case; but 
one of the strangest of these out-of-sight agree- 



Political Government 151 

ments, and one which Knglish people never 
understand, is that which has existed almost ever 
since the Restoration between the political parties 
in the Congress, or, at least, between their lead- 
ers. It is an arrangement, loyally carried out, 
by which each party is allowed in turn to come 
into power. The Cortes is elected to suit the 
party whose turn it is to be in office, and there is 
little reality in the apparent differences. Silvela 
and Sagasta go backwards and forwards with the 
regularity of a pendulum, and the country goes on 
its way improving its position daily and hourly, 
with small thanks to its Government. 

Perhaps it is as well! It gives assurance, at 
least, that no particularly wild schemes or sub- 
versive changes shall be made. When one ad- 
ministration has almost wrecked the ship, as in 
the Caserta marriage, the other comes in peace- 
fully, and sets the public mind at rest ; both parties 
wish for peace and quietness, and no more revolu- 
tions, and the political seesaw keeps the helm fairly 
straight in ordinary weather. To what extent 
the insane and disastrous policy which led to the 
war with America by its shilly-shally treatment 
of Cuba, now promising autonomy, now putting 
down the grinding heel of tyranny, and to what 
extent the suicidal action of the oscillating parties 
— for both share the responsibility — in their in- 
structions to their generals and admirals, and the 
astounding unpreparedness for war of any kind, 
Still less with a country like America, may be 



152 Spanish Life 

traced to this system of " arrangements," which 
allows one party to hand its responsibilities over 
to the other, one can only guess. It is to be 
hoped that when the two figureheads at present 
before the country go over to the majorit}^, there 
may come to the front some earnest and truly 
patriotic ministers, who have been quietly train- 
ing in the school of practical politics, and can 
take the helm with some hope of doing away with 
the crying evils of empleomania and caciquismo. 
Until then there will be no political greatness for 
Spain. 

The advance which Spain has made, " in spite 
of her Governments, and not by their assistance," 
has been remarkable in past years. Since the 
beginning of the last century she has gone through 
a series of political upheavals and disasters which 
might well have destroyed any country; and, in 
fact, her division into so many differing nationali- 
ties has, perhaps, been her greatest safeguard. 
Even after the Revolution of 1868 the series of 
events through which she passed w 7 as enough to 
have paralysed her whole material prosperity; 
the actual loss in materials, and still more in the 
lives of her sons, during the fratricidal wars at 
home and in her colonies, is incalculable, and that 
she was not ruined, but, on the contrary, ad- 
vanced steadily in industry and commerce during 
the whole time, shows her enormous inherent 
vitality. Since then she has undergone the 
lamentable war with America, has lost her chief 



Political Government 153 

colonies, and the Peninsula has been well-nigh 
swamped by the repatriados from Cuba, returning 
to their native country penniless and, in many 
cases, worn out. And yet the state of Spain was 
never so promising, her steady progress never 
more assured, booking back to the Revolution, 
it will be enough to name some of the measures 
secured for the benefit of the people. They in- 
clude complete civil and religious liberty, with 
reforms in the administration of the laws and the 
condition of prisoners, liberty of education, and 
the spread of normal schools into every corner of 
the Peninsula, the establishment of savings banks 
for the poor, somewhat on the lines of England's 
Post Office Savings Bank; railways have received 
an enormous impulse; quays and breakwaters 
have been erected, so that every portion of the 
kingdom is now in immediate touch with Madrid; 
while the universities are sending forth daily 
young men thoroughly trained as engineers, elec- 
tricians, doctors, and scientists of every variety 
to take the places which some years ago were 
almost necessarily filled by foreigners for want of 
trained native talent. 

L,ocal government in the smaller towns of the 
Peninsula is generally said to be very good, and 
to work with great smoothness and efficiency 
hand-in-hand with centralised authority in Ma- 
drid. The fusion of the varying nationalities is 
gradually gaining ground, and the hard-and-fast 
line between the provinces is disappearing. 



154 Spanish Life 

There is more nationality now in matters of every- 
day life than there has ever been before. In old 
times it needed the touch of a foreign hand, the 
threat of foreign interference, to rouse the nation 
as one man. Commerce and industry and the 
national emulation between province and province 
are doing gradually what it once needed the 
avarice of a Napoleon to evoke. 

The paper constitutions of Spain have been 
many, beginning with that of 1812, which the 
Liberals tried to force on Ferdinand VII., to that 
of 1845, which the Conservatives look upon as 
the ideal, or that of 1869, embodying all that the 
Revolution had gained from absolutism, includ- 
ing manhood suffrage. In the first Cortes sum- 
moned after the Restoration, thanks to the good 
sense of Castelar, the Republican party, from 
being conspirators, became a parliamentary party 
in opposition. Zorilla alone, looking upon it as a 
sham, retired to France in disgust. By the new 
constitution of 1876, the power of making laws 
remained, as before, vested in the Cortes and the 
Crown: the Senate consists of three classes, 
Grandes, Bishops, and high officers of State sit- 
ting by right, with one hundred members nomi- 
nated by the Crown, and one hundred and eighty 
elected by provincial Councils, universities, and 
other corporations. Half of the elected members 
go out every five years. The deputies to the 
Congress are elected by indirect vote on a resi- 
dential manhood suffrage, and they number four 



Political Government 155 

hundred and thirty -one. A certain number of 
equal electoral districts of fifty thousand inhabit- 
ants elect one member each ; and twenty-six large 
districts, having several representatives, send 
eighty-eight members to the Cortes. Every prov- 
ince has its provincial elective Council, managing 
its local affairs, and each commune its separate 
District Council, with control over local taxation. 
Yet, though ostensibly free, these local bodies are 
practically in the power of the political wire- 
puller, or cacique. 




CHAPTER X 

COMMERCE AND AGRICULTURE 

COMMERCE and industry had progressed by 
leaps and bounds even during the disastrous 
and troublous years between the expulsion of 
Isabel II. and the restoration of her son. The 
progress is now much more steady and more dif- 
fused over the whole country, but it is by no 
means less remarkable, especially taking into con- 
sideration the disaster of the war with America 
and the loss to Spain of her old colonies. 

Among her politicians in past times there were 
never wanting those who considered that the 
loss of Cuba would be a distinct gain to the 
mother country, and perhaps it may be safely said 
that since the colony had not only been for so 
many years the forcing-house of bureaucratic cor- 
ruption, but had also drained the resources of 
Spain both of mone3^ and lives to the extreme 
limit of her possibility, she is more likely now to 
regain her old position among European nations, 
when left at peace to develop her enormous re- 
sources and set her house in order without the 
distraction of war, either at home or abroad. 

156 



Commerce and Agriculture 157 

When one remembers that this happy condition 
has never obtained in the country since the death 
of Ferdinand VII. until the close of the Spanish- 
American War, and that the country is only now 
recovering from the disorganisation caused by the 
return of her troops and refugees from Cuba and 
Manila, it is not surprising to find that the activ- 
ity manifested in her trade, her manufactures, 
and her industries is such as to give the greatest 
hopes for her future to her own people and to 
those who watch her from afar with friendly eyes. 

Whichever we may regard as cause or effect, the 
progress of the country has been very largely 
identified with the extension of her railway sys- 
tem. It must have been a great step towards 
liberal education when the country which, priding 
herself on her geographical position and her 
rich internal resources, had hitherto wrapped 
herself in her national capa, and considered that 
she was amply sufficient to herself, conde- 
scended to throw open her mountain barriers to 
immigrants. It was not until 1848 that the first 
Spanish railway was opened, and it was but 
seventeen miles in length; but in the next ten 
years five hundred miles had been constructed, 
and between 1858 and 1868 no fewer than two 
thousand eight hundred and five miles, the Py- 
renees had been pierced, and direct communica- 
tion with the rest of Europe accomplished. 

During the troublous years following the Revo- 
lution and the melancholy struggles of the second 



158 Spanish Life 

Carlist war, very little progress was made. For- 
eign capital, which had hitherto been invested in 
Spanish railways, was naturally frightened away, 
and the Northern Railway itself, the great artery 
to France, was constautly being torn up and dam- 
aged, and the lives of the passengers endangered, 
by the armed mobs which infested the country, 
and were supposed by some people to represent 
the cause of legitimacy, and which had, in fact, 
the sanction of the Church and of the Pope. It 
was not, in the majority of cases, that the people 
sympathised with Don Carlos, but it was easier 
and more amusing for the lazy and the ne'er- 
do-weels to receive pay and rations for carry- 
ing a gun, and taking pot-shots at any object 
that presented itself, human or other, than to 
work in the fields, the mines, or on the rail- 
ways. Hence public enterprise was paralysed; 
again and again the workmen, with no desire of 
their own, were driven off by superior bands of 
these wandering shooters, who scarcely deserved 
even the name of guerillas, and public works 
were left deserted and decaying, while the com- 
merce and industry of the province were wrecked, 
and apparently destroyed irrevocably. 

In the earlier stages of railway construction 
and management, French capital and French 
labour were employed. England held aloof, 
partly on account of the closing of the London 
Stock Exchange to Spanish enterprises, in con- 
sequence of the vexed question of the celebrated 



Commerce and Agriculture 159 

coupons, but also because the aid afforded by the 
State did not fall in with the ideas of English 
capitalists. They desired a guaranteed rate of 
interest, while the Spanish Government would 
have nothing but a subvention paid down in one 
lump sum, arguing that it would be impossible to 
tell when a line was making more than the guar- 
anteed interest, " as the companies would so 
arrange their accounts as to show invariably an 
interest smaller than that guaranteed!" With 
this view of the honesty of their own officials, no 
one else could be expected to have a better 
opinion of them; and England allowed France 
and Belgium thenceforward to find all the capital 
and all the materials for Spanish railways. 

The total amount of subventions actually paid 
by Government up to December 31, 1882, was 
^24,529,148. " If," says the author of Commer- 
cial and Industrial Spain, 1 1 the money that we so 
candidly lent to the swarm of defaulting South 
American Republics had been properly invested 
in Spanish railways, a great deal of trouble might 
probably have been spared to the unfortunate in- 
vestors. ' ' 

All that, however, is altered now: the State 
schools and universities are turning out daily 
well-equipped native engineers, both for railway 
and mining works, and Spaniards are finding 
their own capital for public works. The phrase 
"Spain for the Spaniards" is acquiring a new 
significance — perhaps the most hopeful of all the 



160 Spanish Life 

signs of progress the country is making. In 1899, 
there were working 12,916 kilometros of railwa}'S, 
or 7.9 kilometros for each 10,000 of the population. 
A kilometro equals 1.609 English mile. There 
is no part of the country now isolated, either from 
the centre of government in Madrid, or from the 
coast, and communication with Portugal, and, 
through France, with the rest of Europe, is easy 
and constant. With this advance in means of 
transit, the trade of the country has received an 
immense impulse, and its raw and manufactured 
goods are now reaching all markets. 

The rich mineral wealth of the country and its 
wonderful climate only need enlightened enter- 
prise to make Spain one of the richest and most 
important commercial factors in the world's trade. 
The list of minerals alone, raised from mines in 
working, amounts to twenty-two, ranging from 
gold and silver, copper, tin, zinc, quick-silver, 
salt, coal, etc., to cobalt and antimony; and 8,313,- 
218 tons of minerals of all these twenty-two classes 
were raised in 1882 against 1,201,054 m 1862. 
The value of mines in 1880 was represented by one 
hundred and eleven millions of pesetas (francs), 
but in 1898 by three hundred and nineteen mil- 
lions (pesetas). The value of imports in 1882 
was 816,666,901 pesetas, and of exports 765,376,- 
087 pesetas. In 1899, imports were 1,045,391,983, 
and exports 864,367,885. But this is taking 
exactly the period covered by the war with 
America; a fairer estimate of exports is that of 



Commerce and Agriculture 161 

1897, which stood at 1,074,883,372. No state- 
ment has been published since 1899, but inter- 
mediate statistics show the trade of the country 
to be advancing rapidty. 

To return, however, to Spanish industries. 
In late years large smelting- works have been 
opened in Spain, with Spanish capital and man- 
agement, while at Bilbao are large iron-works for 
the manufacture of steel rails. There are splen- 
did deposits of iron in the country, and as the 
duty on foreign rails entering Spain is £3 45. per 
ton, it is probable that the near future will see 
the country free from the necessity of importing 
manufactured iron, or, in fact, metal of any kind. 
A Catalan company has established important 
works for reducing the sulphur of the rich mines 
near Lorca, and confidently expects to produce 
some thirty thousand tons of sulphur per annum. 
The rich silver mines of the Sierra Almagrera are 
almost wholly in native hands, and have already 
yielded large fortunes to the owners. With the 
present improved transport and shipping facilities 
in every part of the country, it is probable that 
the valuable mines scattered all over the Penin- 
sula will be thoroughly worked, to the advance 
of commercial and industrial interests over the 
entire country. 

While the seaboard provinces are rich in fish- 
eries, as well as in mines, in the south the country 
is able to grow rice, sugar-cane, maize, raisins, 
as well as wheat, olives, oranges, grapes, dates, 



1 62 Spanish Life 

bananas, pine-apples, and almost all kinds of 
tropical fruits. The cultivation of all varieties of 
fruit and vegetables, and their careful gathering 
and packing have become the object of many large 
companies and private individuals. Dates, ba- 
nanas, grapes, plums, tomatoes, melons, as well as 
asparagus and other early vegetables, are now 
being shipped to foreign markets as regular 
articles of trade, in a condition which insures a 
rapid and increasing sale. The exportation of 
fruit has doubled within the last few years. The 
production of cane sugar in 1899 was thirty-one 
thousand tons, or exactly three times the amount 
of that produced in 1889. The exportation of 
wine, which in 1894 was two millions of milelitros, 
was in 1898 nearly five millions, and it is daily 
increasing (one gallon English measure equals 
about four and one half litros). 

Spain has always had excellent wines unknown 
to other countries, besides that which is manu- 
factured into what we know as "sherry"; but 
many of them were so carelessly made as to 
be unfit for transit abroad. The attention of 
wine-growers has, however, been steadily turned 
to this subject during the last twenty years; 
greater care has been taken in the production; 
the best methods have been ascertained and fol- 
lowed, and it is possible now to obtain undoctored 
Spanish wines which perfectly bear the carriage 
in cask without injury; and, to meet a direct sale 
to the customer, small barrels containing about 



Commerce and Agriculture 163 

twelve gallons are shipped from Tarragona and 
other ports to England. 

One of the most hopeful signs of the economic 
awakening of the country is the establishment of 
the Boletin de la Cdmara de Comercio de Espana en 
la Gran Bretdna, published each month in London. 

In this little commercial circular a review is 
given of the commerce and industry of all nations 
during the month; all fluctuations are noted, ex- 
tracts from foreign statistics or money articles 
given, suggestions made for the opening up of 
Spanish commerce, and the introduction of her 
manufactures into this and other countries. 
Speaking on the question of the introduction of 
pure Spanish wines into England, a recent writer 
in the Boletin remarks that English workmen are 
thirsty animals, that they like a big drink, but 
they are not really desirous of becoming intoxi- 
cated by it. In fact, they would most of them 
prefer to be able to drink more without bad effects. 
The writer goes on to say that if the English 
workman could obtain pure wine that would cost 
no more than his customary beer, and would not 
make him intoxicated, and if Spanish light wines 
— which he says could be sold in England for less 
than good beer — were offered in tempting-looking 
taverns and under pleasant conditions, he believes 
that a really enormous trade would be the result, 
to the benefit of both nations. The suggestion 
is, at least, an interesting one, and though the 
scheme would certainly not benefit the habitual 



164 Spanish Life 

drunkard, who becomes enamoured of his own 
debauchery, it might be very welcome to many 
of the working people, who, as " our neighbour " 
quaintly remarks, like a big drink, but do not 
necessarily wish to become intoxicated. 

In this connection, it may be interesting to know 
that the small twelve-gallon casks of red wine, re- 
sembling Burgundy rather than claret, but less 
heavy than the Australian wines, and forming a 
delicious drink with water, are delivered at one's 
own door carriage free for a price which works 
out, including duty, at &%d. the ordinary bottle, 
or is. 2d. the flagon, such as the Australian wine 
is sold in. This is, in fact, cheaper than good 
stout or ale. 

Spain has alwaj^s been celebrated for two special 
manufactures — her silk and woollen goods; but 
for very rnany years these have been almost un- 
known beyond her own boundaries. In the time 
of the Moors her silken goods had a world-wide 
fame; and the silk-worm has been cultivated there 
probably from the earliest days, when it was sur- 
reptitiously introduced into Europe. Groves of 
mulberry trees were grown especially for sericul- 
ture in the irrigated provinces of the South, the 
care of the insect being undertaken by the wo- 
men, while the men were employed on tasks more 
suitable to their strength. Native-grown spun 
and woven silk forms such an important part in 
the national costumes of the people that it has 
attained to great perfection without attracting 



Commerce and Agriculture 165 

much foreign notice. The silk petticoats of the 
women, the velvet jackets and trunk hose of the 
men, the beautiful silk and woollen mantas, with 
their deep fringes of silken or woollen balls; the 
madroiws, or silk tufts and balls, used as decora- 
tions for the Andalusian or the gypsy hats, not 
to mention the beautifully soft and pure silks of 
Barcelona, or the silk laces made in such perfec- 
tion in many parts of the country, — all these are 
objects of merchandise only needing to be known, 
to occasion a large demand, especially in these 
days when the French invention of weighted 
dyes floods the English market with something 
that has the outward appearance of silk, but 
which does not even wait for wear to disclose its 
real nature, but rots into holes on the drapers' 
shelves, and would-be smart young women of 
slender purses walk about in what has been 
well called " tin attire," in the manufacture of 
which the silk-worm has had only the slenderest 
interest. 

The blankets and rugs of Palencia have been 
known to some few English people for many 
years, owing to their extreme lightness, great 
warmth, and literally unending wear; but it is 
only within the last very few years that they can 
be said to have had any market at all in England, 
and now they are called " Pyrenean " rather than 
Spanish goods. One of the suggestions of the 
little commercial circular already referred to is 
that Spaniards should open depots or special 



1 66 Spanish Life 

agencies all over England for the sale of their 
woollen goods, after the manner of the Jaeger 
Company. 

The flocks of merino sheep to be seen on the 
wooded slopes of the Pyrenees, and all over Estre- 
madura, following their shepherd after the man- 
ner with which Old Testament history makes us 
familiar, are said to be direct descendants of the 
old Arabian flocks, and certainly the appearance 
of one of these impassive-looking shepherds lead- 
ing his flock to " green pastures, and beside the 
still waters," takes one back in the world's history 
in a way that few other things do. The flock 
know the voice of their shepherd, and follow him 
unquestioningly wheresoever he goes; there is no 
driving, no hurrying; and the same may be said 
of the pigs, which form such an important item 
in the social economy of a Spanish peasant's 
home. 

Staying once at Castellon de la Plana, in Va- 
lencia, my delight was to watch the pig-herd and 
his troop. Early in the morning, at a fixed hour, 
he issued from his house in one of the small alleys, 
staff in hand, and with a curious kind of horn or 
whistle. This he blew as he walked along, from 
time to time, without turning his head, in that 
strange trance of passivity which distinguishes 
the Valencian peasant. Out from dark corners, 
narrow passages, mud hovels on all sides, came 
tearing along little pigs, big pigs, dark, light, fat, 
thin pigs, — pigs of every description, — and joined 



Commerce and Agriculture 167 

the procession headed by this sombre-looking 
herdsman, with his long stick and his blue-and- 
white striped mania thrown over his shoulder. 
By the time he had reached the end of the village 
he had a large herd following him. Then the 
whole party slowly disappeared in the distance, 
under the groves of cork-trees or up the mountain 
paths. The evening performance was more amus- 
ing still. Just about sundown the stately herds- 
man again appeared with his motley following. 
He took no manner of notice of them. He stalked 
majestically towards his own particular hovel, and 
at each corner of a lane or group of cottages the 
pigs said " Good night " to each other by a kick- 
up of their heels and a whisk of their curly little 
tails, and scampered off home by themselves, 
until, at the end of the village, only one solitary 
pig was following his leader — probably they 
shared one home between them. It seemed a 
peaceful, if not an absolutely happy, life! 

One would expect a country with such a cli- 
mate, or rather with so many climates, as Spain, 
to make a great feature of agriculture. It can at 
once produce wheat of the very finest quality, 
wine, oil, rice, sugar, and every kind of fruit and 
vegetable that is known; and it ought to be able 
to support a large agricultural population in com- 
fort, and export largely. Taking into account, 
also, the rich mineral wealth, which should make 
her independent of imports of this nature, it is 
sad to see that in past years, even so late as 1882, 



168 Spanish Life 

wheat and flour, coal and coke, iron and tools 
figure amongst her imports — the first two in ve^ 
large proportions. Although the vast plains of 
Estremadura and Castile produce the finest wheat 
known to commerce, the quantity, owing to the 
want of water, is so small in relation to the acre- 
age under cultivation, that it does not suffice for 
home consumption, except in very favourable 
years; while the utilisation of the magnificent 
rivers, which now roll their waters uselessly to 
the sea, would make the land what it once was 
when the thrifty Moor held it — a thickly popu- 
lated and flourishing grain-producing district. 
In place of the wandering flocks of sheep and 
pigs gaining a precarious existence on the herbage 
left alive by the blistering sun on an arid soil, 
there should be smiling homesteads and blooming 
gardens everywhere, trees and grateful shade 
where now the ground, between the rainy sea- 
sons, becomes all of one dusty, half-burnt colour, 
reminding one more of the "back of a mangy 
camel," as it has been described, than of a coun- 
try that has once been fruitful and productive. 

The late General Concha, Marques del Duero, 
was the originator of sugar-cane cultivation. He 
spent a large portion of his private fortune in 
establishing what bids fair to be one of the most 
productive industries of his country. But, like 
most pioneers of progress, he reaped no benefit 
himself. His fine estates near Malaga, with their 
productive cane-farms, passed into other hands 



Commerce and Agriculture 169 

before he had reaped the reward of his patriotic 
endeavours. For a long time the cheap, bounty- 
fed beet sugars of Germany, which never approach 
beyond being an imitation of real sugar — as every 
housewife can testify who has tried to make jam 
with them — were able to undersell the produce of 
the cane; but the latest statistics show that this 
industry is now making steady progress, the pro- 
duction of 1899 being thirty-one thousand tons, 
or exactly three times that of 1899. A propos of 
the difference between cane and beet sugars for 
all domestic purposes, and the superior cheapness 
of the more costly article, it is satisfactory to note 
that in England the working classes, through 
their own co-operative societies, insist on being 
supplied with the former, knowing by experimen- 
tal proof its immense superiority; and one may 
hope that their wisdom may spread into house- 
holds where the servants pull the wires, and care 
nothing about economy. 

Looking at the ordinary map of Spain, it ap- 
pears to be ridiculous to say that the greater part 
of the country is in want of water. Although it 
is intersected by three large ranges of mountains 
beyond the Pyrenees, and innumerable others of 
smaller dimensions, thus making a great propor- 
tion of the country impossible for agriculture, it 
is rich in magnificent rivers and in smaller ones, 
all of which are allowed to run to waste in many 
parts of the country, while even a small portion 
of their waters, artificially dammed and utilised 



170 Spanish Life 

for irrigation, if only of the lands lying on each 
side of them, would mean wealth and prosperity 
and an abounding population where now the 
"everlasting sun" pours its rays over barren 
wastes. Moreover, by the growth of the wood, 
which once covered the plains and has been cut 
down, little by little, until the whole surface of 
the land was changed, in process of time the 
climate would become less dry, and vegetation 
more rapid and easy. 

Ever since the expulsion of the Moors from 
Castile and Estremadura, the land has been 
allowed gradually to go almost out of cultivation 
for want of water, the wholesale devastation of 
forests, in combination with the lapse of all irriga- 
tion, acting as a constantly accelerating cause for 
the arid and unproductive condition of the once 
genial soil. Irrigation has been the crying want 
of Spain for generations past ; but even now the 
Government scarcely seems to have awakened to 
its necessity. Perhaps, however, the Spaniard 
who goes on his way, never troubling to listen to 
the opinion or advice of his neighbour, has not, 
after all, been so wanting in common sense as 
some of the more energetic of his critics have 
thought. In spite of all the changes and disasters 
of successive Governments, a steady and rapid ad- 
vance has been made in providing means of trans- 
port and shipping, by the construction of railways 
to even 7 part of the country, the making and 
keeping in condition of admirable highways, and 



Commerce and Agriculture i? 1 

the building of breakwaters and quays in many 
of the seaports, so that now the output of the 
mines and produce of all kinds can find market 
within the country, or be shipped abroad freely. 

If the money no longer being expended in rail- 
ways and docks were now devoted to irrigation 
wherever it is needed, a rapid change would be- 
come apparent over the whole face of the country, 
and the population would increase in proportion 
as the land would bear it. Irrigation works have 
been more than once undertaken by the aid of 
foreign money, and under the charge of foreign 
engineers; but the people themselves — the land- 
owners and peasant proprietors — were not ripe for 
it, and, alas! some of the canals which would 
have turned whole valleys into gardens have been 
allowed to go to ruin, or to become actually 
obliterated, while the scanty crops are raised once 
in two or three j^ears from the same soil, which 
will yield three crops in one year by the help of 
water. Difficulties arose about the sale of the 
water — a prolific cause of dispute even in the old 
irrigated districts — and the people said: ''What 
do we want with water, except what comes from 
heaven ? If the Virgin thinks we want water, 
she sends it." Fitting result of the teaching of 
the Church for so many years, with the example 
ever held up for admiration of the patron saint, 
Isidro, who knelt all day at his prayers, and left 
the tilling of his fields to the angels! It would 
seem that these ministers of grace are not good 



17 2 Spanish Life 

husbandmen, since the land became the arid 
waste it now is, while successive Isidros have 
been engaged in religious duties, which they were 
taught were all that was necessary. 

As an example of what irrigation means in the 
sunlit fields of Spain, an acre of irrigable land in 
Valencia or Murcia sells for prices varying from 
^150 to ^400, according to its quality or its situa- 
tion, while land not irrigable only fetches sums 
varying from £j to ,£20. In Castile, land would 
not in any case fetch so high a price as that which 
has been under irrigated cultivation for centuries 
past; but in any district the value of dry land is 
never more than a twelfth of what it is when 
irrigable. In truth, however, there is more than 
irrigation needed to bring the lands of Castile 
and Estremadura into profitable cultivation, and 
it cannot be done without the expenditure of large 
sums of money at the outset in manures, and good 
implements in place of the obsolete old imple- 
ments with which the ground is now scratched 
rather than ploughed. Given good capital and 
intelligent farming, as in the irrigated districts, 
and two, and even three, crops a year can be 
raised in unceasing succession; lucern gives from 
ten to twelve cuttings in one year, fifteen days 
being sufficient for the growth of a new crop. 

I have pointed out what one day's sun can do 
in raising grass seed in Madrid, which stands on 
the highest point of the elevated table-land oc- 
cupying the centre of Spain. Seeing that the 



Commerce and Agriculture 173 

principal item of the revenue is derived from the 
land tax, and that it is calculated on the value of 
the land, it would appear to be the first interest 
of an enlightened government to foster irrigation 
in every possible way, and encourage agriculture 
and the planting of trees. 

Although the people of Spain have hated their 
more immediate neighbours with an exceeding 
bitter hatred, — as, indeed, they had good cause to 
do inthe past, — her public men have had a strange 
fancy for importing or imitating French customs. 
One that militates more than anything else against 
agricultural prosperity is the law of inheritance, 
copied from the French. By this the State divides 
an estate amongst the heirs without any reference 
to the wishes of the proprietor at his death. Not 
only are all large estates broken up and practically 
dissipated, so that it is to no one's interest to im- 
prove his property or spend money on it, but the 
small farms of the peasant proprietor are broken 
into smaller fragments in the same way; and it is 
no uncommon thing to see a field of a few acres 
divided into six or eight furrows, none of them 
enough to support one man. While he has to go 
off seeking' work where he can get it, his strip of 
land clings to him like a curse, for he must lose 
his work if he would try to cultivate it, and at his 
death it will again be subdivided, until at last 
there is nothing left to share. Meanwhile, the 
land, which is not enough to be of any value to 
anyone, has been allowed to go almost out of 



174 Spanish Life 

cultivation; or if it bear anything at all, it is 
weeds. 

Until some remedy be found for this enervating 
system, it would seem as if Spanish agriculture is 
doomed to remain in its present unsatisfactory 
condition over a great part of the kingdom. The 
improvement of agriculture is practically a ques- 
tion of private enterprise, and under the existing 
law of inheritance neither enterprise nor interest 
can be expected of the small proprietor; nor in- 
deed of the large landowner, who knows that, 
whatever he may do to improve his estate, it is 
doomed to be cut to pieces and divided amongst 
his next of kin until it is eventually extinguished. 
Whether, in some future time, an enlightened 
scheme of co-operation could work the arid lands 
into cultivation again, if the Government would 
give the necessary aid in the form of irrigation, 
remains among the unanswered riddles of the 
future. Prophecy in Spain is never possible; it 
is always the unexpected which happens in that 
country of sharp contradictions. All one can do 
is to note past progress and the drift of the present 
current, which, whatever government is at the 
nominal head of affairs, seems to be towards wide- 
spread — in fact, quite general — advance both in 
knowledge and industrial activity. 

The greatest hope for the future lies in the fact 
that it is no longer foreign money or foreign 
labour that is working for the good of the country ; 
the impulse is from within, and every penny of 



Commerce and Agriculture 175 

capital that is sunk in public works, manufac- 
tures, or industrial enterprise, is so much invested 
in a settled state of affairs. When the individual 
has everything to lose by revolutionary changes, 
when the commerce of the country is becoming 
too important to be allowed to be upset easily, and 
it is everybody's interest to support and increase 
it, the main body of the people are ranged on the 
side of peace and progress. They have had 
enough of civil war, enough of tyranny; they 
have achieved freedom, and want nothing so 
much as to taste of it in quietness. 

To revert for a moment to the special manufac- 
tures of the country, it appears to be the wise 
policy of the powers that be in Spain to-day to 
encourage, by every possible means, native in- 
dustries and the development of the rich resources 
of the country. If it be only in the superior 
education required of the workmen, and the 
drawing out of their natural talents, the move- 
ment is an immense gain to the people, so long 
purposely kept in a condition of slothful igno- 
rance. 

Besides the woollen manufactures of Palencia, 
IyOrca, Jerez, Barcelona, Valencia, and other 
places, are many cloth factories in Cataluna, as 
well as others for the production of silk fabrics, 
lace, and very high-class embroideries, for which 
last Spain has long been famous, but which have 
hitherto been little known beyond her own fron- 
tiers. In artistic crafts may be named the pottery 



17 6 Spanish Life 

works of Pickman, Mesaque, Gomez, and others 
in Seville, where magnificent reproductions of 
Moorish and Hespano-Moresque tiles and pottery- 
are being turned out; there are also factories for 
this class of goods in Valencia, Barcelona, Segovia, 
Talevera, and many other places. Ornamental 
iron and damascene work holds the high reputa- 
tion which Spain has never lost, but the output is 
very largely increased. Gold and silver inlaid 
on iron, iron inlaid on copper and silver, are some 
of the forms of this beautiful work. That exe- 
cuted in Madrid differs from that of Toledo, Eibar, 
and other centres of the craft. The iron gate- 
work executed in Madrid and Barcelona is very 
hard to beat, and the casting of bronzes is carried 
out with every modern improvement. The wood- 
carvers of Spain have always been famous, and 
the craft appears to be in no danger of falling be- 
hind its old reputation, much beautiful decorative 
work of this description being produced for 
modern needs. The Circulo de Artes holds an 
exhibition in Madrid every other year, and in 
the intervening years the Government has one, 
in the large permanent buildings erected for the 
purpose at the end of the Fuente Castellana. 
The manufacture of artistic furniture and other 
connected industries are encouraged also by a bi- 
yearly exhibition in Madrid, where prizes and 
commendations are given. The chief centres of 
artistic furniture-making are Madrid, Barcelona, 
Granada, and Zaragoza. Exhibitions of arts and 



Commerce and Agriculture 1 77 

crafts and of all kinds of industries and manufac- 
tures are also held, at intervals, in the principal 
towns all over the country. An interesting ex- 
hibition of Spanish and South American produc- 
tions was held in 1901 in Bilbao with great success. 

Nor ought we to forget the industry for which 
Seville is famed. The manufacture of tobacco 
is almost wholly in the hands of women, and is 
a very important industry, thousands being em- 
ployed in the large factories making up cigars, 
cigarettes, and preparing and packing the finer 
kinds of tobacco. The cigar-girl of Seville is a 
well-known type, almost as much dreaded by the 
authorities as admired by her own class. The 
women are mostly young, and often attractive, 
extremely pronounced both in dress and manners, 
and are quite a power to be reckoned with when 
they choose to assert themselves. On more than 
one occasion they have taken up some cause en 
masse, and have gathered in thousands, deter- 
mined to have their way. 

When this happens, the powers that be are 
reduced to great straits. Neither the Guardia 
Civile nor the military can be relied on to use 
force, and unless the army of irate women can be 
persuaded to retire from the contest it is probable 
that, relying with perfect confidence on the privi- 
leges of their sex, they will gain what they con- 
sider their rights — at all events their will. 

No country in the world is more suited for 
manufactures and exports than Spain. She has 



178 Spanish Life 

an unexampled seaboard, and many magnificent 
natural harbours, and now an easy approach 
through Portugal to the sea, even if her own 
ports should be insufficient. Common commer- 
cial interests are likely to bring that Iberian 
kingdom or commonwealth to pass which has been 
the dream of some of her politicians, and is still 
cherished in parts of both countries. The north- 
ern ports in the Atlantic are, perhaps, the most 
important; that of Bilbao, a most unpromising 
one by nature, has grown out of all recognition 
since the close of the Carlist war. The railway 
to the iron mines was already in course of con- 
struction when the war broke out; everything was 
stopped, the workmen carried off willy-nilly to 
join the marauding bands of the Pretender, the 
town — which boasts that it has never been taken, 
although twice almost demolished during the two 
insane civil wars — was wrecked and well-nigh 
ruined, its industries destroyed, its commerce at 
an end. With peace and quietness came one of 
the most extraordinary revivals of modern times: 
the population increased at a marvellous rate, the 
new town sprang into existence on the left bank 
of the Nerrion, the river was deepened, the bar, 
which used to block almost all entrance, prac- 
tically removed, extensive dock-works carried 
out; so that in ten years the shipment of ore from 
the port sprang up from four hundred and twenty- 
five thousand tons to 3,737,176, and is increasing 
daily. Bilbao, with its five railway stations, its 



Commerce and Agriculture 179 

electric tramways, and its population of sixty-six 
thousand, has become the first and most impor- 
tant shipping outlet of Spain. Nor have the 
southern ports of Huelva and Seville been much 
behind it in their rapid progress; while on the 
Mediterranean coast are Malaga, Almeria, Agui- 
las, Cartagena, Valencia, and Tarragona — all 
vying with the older, and once singular, centre 
of commercial and industrial activity, Barcelona. 
The northwest seaboard has been hitherto some- 
what behind the movement, owing to a less com- 
plete railway communication with the rest of the 
county; now that this is no more a reproach, 
the fine natural harbours of Rivadeo, Vivero, 
Carril, Pontevedra, Vigo, and Coruna, are gradu- 
ally following suit, some with more vigour than 
others. The little land-locked harbour of Pa- 
sages has for some years been rapidly rising to 
the rank of a first-class shipping port. 

It is satisfactory to note, from the latest statis- 
tics, that in 1899 Spain possessed a total of one 
thousand and thirty-five merchant ships, that in 
the same 3^ear she bought from England alone 
sixty-seven, and that 17,419 ships, carrying 11,- 
857,674 tons of exports, left Spanish ports for 
foreign markets. Although no official informa- 
tion has been published since that } T ear, the in- 
crease since the close of the war has been in very 
much greater ratio. From the same records we 
find that during the year 1899 no fewer than 
sixty-nine large companies were formed, of which 



180 Spanish Life 

twenty- three were for shipping, eight were new 
sugar factories, seven banks, seven mining, six 
electric, and ten others related either to manu- 
facture or commerce, the total capital of these 
new enterprises representing one hundred and 
twenty-eight millions of pesetas. 

In contrast to Portugal, the caminos reales, or 
high-roads, of Spain have long been very good. 
It is true that where these State roads do not 
exist, the unadulterated arroyo serves as a country 
road, or a mere track across the fields made by 
carts and foot-passengers, and when an obstruc- 
tion occurs in the form of too deep a hole to be 
got through, the track takes a turn outside it, and 
returns to the direct line as soon as circumstances 
permit. An arroyo is given in the dictionary as 
"a rivulet"; it is, in fact, generally a rushing 
torrent during the rains, eating its way through 
the land, and laying down a smooth, deep layer 
of sand, or even soil, between high banks. Im- 
mediately after the rainy season this affords a 
firm, good road for a time, but eventually it be- 
comes ploughed into impassable ruts by the 
w r heels of the carts, unless trampled hard by the 
feet of passing flocks. 

Government undertakes the cost and the super- 
intendence of the caminos rcalcs, and does it well. 
The corps of engineers is modelled on French 
lines, and is a department of the Ministry of 
Public Works. The course of stud}'' is extremely 
severe, and the examinations are strict and search- 



Commerce and Agriculture 181 

ing. When a candidate passes, he is appointed 
assistant-engineer by the Ministry, and he rises in 
his profession solely by seniority. Every pro- 
vince has its engineer-in-chief, with his staff of 
assistants; the superintendents of harbours, rail- 
ways, and other public works are specially ap- 
pointed from qualified engineers. In addition to 
the care of the construction and repair of all high- 
ways and Government works in his district, the 
engineer-in-chief has the overlooking of all works 
which, although they may be the result of private 
enterprise and private capital, are authorised or 
carried out under Government concession. These 
concessions are only granted after the project has 
been submitted to, and approved b}^, the Ministry 
of Public Works, and it passes under the super- 
vision of the engineer of the provinces. In old 
days, if not now, there was a good deal of ' ' the 
itching palm " about the officials, not excluding 
the Minister himself, through whose hands the 
granting of concessions passed, even the wives 
coming in for handsome presents and " considera- 
tions," without which events had a knack of not 
moving; and when the army of Empleados be- 
came Cesantes, this work, of course, began all 
over again. The railway engineers form a sepa- 
rate body, the country being mapped out into 
arbitrary divisions, each under the charge of one 
engineer-in-chief, with a large body of assistants. 
The telegraph system of Spain has now for 
many years been in a good condition. The 



1 82 Spanish Life 

construction of the lines dates from about 1862, 
when only five miles were in operation. There is 
now probably not a village in the whole country 
that does not possess its telegraph office, and in 
all the important towns this is kept open all 
night. A peseta for twenty words, including 
the address, is the uniform charge, every addi- 
tional word being ten centimos. The telegraphs 
were established by the Government, and are 
under its control. All railway lines of public 
service, and those which receive a subvention, 
must provide two wires for Government use. 
Telephones are now in use in all large centres, 
and electric lighting and traction are far more 
widely used than in England. 




CHAPTER XI 



THK ARMY AND NAVY 



IT is not necessary to say to anyone who has 
the smallest acquaintance with history that 
Spaniards are naturally brave and patriotic. The 
early history of the Peninsula is one of valour in 
battle, whether by land or sea. The standard of 
Castile has been borne by her sons triumphantly 
over the surface of the globe. Few of us now re- 
member that Johnson wrote of the Spain of his 
day: 

Has Heaven reserved, in pity to the poor, 
No pathless waste, no undiscovered shore, 
No secret island on the trackless main, 
No peaceful desert, yet unclaimed by Spain ? 

In the old days when Drake undertook to 
" singe the King of Spain's beard," and carried 
out his threat, our sailors and those of Philip II., 
some time " King of England," as the Spaniards 
still insist on calling him, met often in mortal 
combat, and learned to recognise and honour in 
each other the same dogged fighting-power, the 
same discipline and quiet courage. The picture 

183 



1 84 Spanish Life 

of the Spaniards standing bareheaded in token of 
reverence and admiration of a worthy foe, as some 
small English ships went down with all their 
crew rather than surrender, in those old days of 
strife, touches a chord which still vibrates in 
memory of battles fought and won together by 
Englishmen and Spaniards under the Iron Duke. 
True, some battered and torn English flags hang 
as trophies in the armoury of Madrid, but one 
likes to remember that in the only battle where 
our colours were lost, the Spanish troops were 
commanded by an Englishman, James Stuart, 
Duke of Berwick, the direct ancestor of the pre- 
sent Duque de Berwick y Alva, and the English 
by one of French birth. In every case where 
foreign foes have invaded Spain, sooner or later 
they have been driven out. Santiago ! y Cierra 
Espana ! was the war-cry which roused every 
child of Spain to close his beloved country to 
alien domination. 

Unfortunately, the yoke of the foreigner came 
in more invidious guise. From the death of 
Ferdinand and Isabella to the year 1800, the sons 
of Spain were immolated to serve causes which 
were of no account to her, to protect the interests 
of sovereigns who had nothing in common with 
her provinces, to add to the power of the Austrian 
Hapsburgs and the French Bourbons. We have 
seen how the people whom Napoleon had believed 
to be sunk in fanaticism, dead to all national 
aspiration, the mere slaves of a despicable King, 



The Army and Navy 185 

and the sport of his debauched Queen and her 
lover, sprang to arms and drove the invader from 
their land. So would it be to-day if the country 
were even threatened by foreign invasion. " The 
dogs of Spain," as Granville called them, know 
well how to protect their soil. 

Within comparatively recent years the cam- 
paign in Morocco, and the expeditionary force 
sent to Cochin-China, showed that the Spanish 
army was not to be despised. It has been the 
misfortune of Spain that her soldiers have too 
often had the melancholy task of fighting against 
their own people, or those of their colonies, both 
of whom have been excited and aided in in- 
surrection for years by foreign contributions of 
arms and money. In these unhappy fratricidal 
struggles the fighting has never been more than 
half-hearted, and during the numerous military 
pronunciamientos it has often been necessary to 
keep the troops from meeting, as they could never 
be trusted not to fraternise; and after the first 
abortive attempt by Prim to effect the revolution 
which later freed the country, the curious spec- 
tacle was afforded of Prim and his soldiers march- 
ing quietly out of one end of a village, while the 
troops of the Queen, sent in pursuit, were being 
purposely kept back from marching too quickly 
in at the other. 

The army of Spain would seem to suffer from a 
plethora of officers, especially those of the highest 
rank. In the time of Alfonso XII., there were 



1 86 Spanish Life 

ten marshals, fifty-five generals, sixty-six maris- 
cales de campo, and one hundred and ninety-seven 
brigadiers; adding those on the retired list liable 
for service, there were in all five hundred and 
twenty generals, four hundred and seventy-two 
colonels, eight hundred and ninety-four lieuten- 
ant-colonels, 21 13 commandants, 5041 captains, 
5880 lieutenants, and 4833 sous-lieutenants. With 
such an array of officers, it is scarcely to be won- 
dered at that promotion in the ordinary way was 
looked on as impossible, and the juggle of military 
prommciamientos was regarded as almost the only 
means of rising in the army. It was no uncom- 
mon thing to promise a rise of one grade through- 
out a whole corps to compass one of these miniature 
revolutions. However, all that is happily past. 
General Weyler, — whose name indicates alien 
blood at some period of his family history, — the 
present Minister of War, has taken the thorough 
reform of the army in hand, though it is too soon 
to say if he will be as successful as is generally 
expected from his known energy and common 
sense, since the work is only now in progress. 

One of the most fertile sources of disturbance in 
the old days of Isabel II. was the presence of 
the primo sargentos. These petty officers, having 
risen from the ranks, and invested with an authority 
for which they were often quite unsuited, were al- 
ways ready, for a consideration, to aid the cause of 
some aspiring politician, now on one side, now on 
another. They are now, fortunately, abolished. 



The Army and Navy 187 

The Spanish artillery is a splendid body, and is 
officered from the best families in the country. In 
the only military insurrection in which the com- 
mon soldiers shot some of the officers obnoxious to 
them — that of the Montaiio Barracks, in 1866 — 
the leader of the mutinists was a certain hidalgo. 
It was the promotion of this man that led in- 
directly to the abdication of Don Amadeo, who 
opposed the action. Indignant at the disgrace 
to the service, all of the artillery officers in Spain 
sent in their resignations. They were accepted, 
and the primo sargentos raised to the rank of 
officers to fill their places. The result was un- 
limited mutiny among the rank and file and 
danger to the State. Some of the young officers 
who had retained their uniforms, though no longer 
attached to the corps, finding the troops in utter 
disorder and revolt, quietly donned their uni- 
forms, went down to the barracks, and gave their 
orders. The men instantly fell into the ranks, 
and the situation was saved. 'The primo sargen- 
tos were abolished, the officers reinstated. But 
Amadeo had had enough; he ceased to attempt 
to reign constitutionally in a country where the 
constitution meant only one more form of per- 
sonal greed and excess. He was de7nasiado hon- 
esto for the crew he had been called to command, 
and he left the country to tumble about in its 
so-called "republican" anarchy until another 
military pronmiciamiento set Alfonso XII. on 
the throne. And that has been, fortunately, the 



1 88 Spanish Life 

last performance of a kind once so common in 
Spain. 

All military men admire the effective corps of 
light mountain artillery. The small guns are 
carried on the backs of the splendid mules for 
which the Spanish army is famous, and can be 
taken up any mountain path which these singular 
animals can climb. Mules are also used to drag 
the heavier guns, and must be invaluable in a 
mountainous country. The animals are quite as 
large as ordinary horses, are lithe, active, and 
literally unhurtable. I have myself seen a mule, 
harnessed to a cart which was discharging stones 
over the edge of a deep pit, when levelling the 
ground at the end of the Fuente Castellana in 
Madrid, over-balanced by the weight behind him, 
fall over, turn a somersault in mid-air, cart and 
all, and, alighting thirty feet below, shake him- 
self, ponder for a few seconds on the unexpected 
event in his day's labour, and then proceed to draw 
the cart, by this time satisfactorily emptied, out 
of the pit by the sloping track at the farther side, 
and continue his task absolutely unhurt and un- 
disturbed. 

Until the final overthrow of the Carlists by Al- 
fonso XII., the Basque Provinces, amongst their 
most cherished fueros, were exempted from the 
hated conscription ; but the victorious King made 
short work of that and of all other special rights 
and privileges — which, in truth, had been abused 
— and now all the country is subject to conscrip- 



The Army and Navy 189 

tion. Every man from nineteen to twenty years 
of age is liable to serve in the ranks, except those 
who are studying as officers. A payment of ^"6o 
frees them from service during peace; but if the 
country is at war there is no exemption. The 
conscripts are bound for twelve years — three with 
the colours, three in the first reserve, three in 
the second, and three in the third. 

Navy? Alas! Spain has none. Two battle- 
ships alone remain — El Pelayo and Carlos V. (the 
former about nine thousand five hundred tons, 
the latter not more than seven thousand) — and 
some destroyers and torpedoes. How a nation 
that once ruled the sea, and whose sailors trav- 
ersed and conquered the New World, has allowed 
her navy to become practically extinct at the mo- 
ment when nations which have almost no seaboard 
are trying to bring theirs up within measurable 
distance of England's, it is impossible to say. 
Even before the outbreak of the war with Amer- 
ica there were but a few battle-ships, and these 
were wanting in guns and in almost all that could 
make them effective — save and except the men, 
who behaved like heroes. It seems to be a con- 
solation to Spaniards to remember that it was in 
the pages of an English journal that an English- 
man, who had seen the whole of the disastrous 
war, wrote: " If Spain were served by her states- 
men as she has been served by her navy, she 
would be one of the greatest nations of the world 
to-day." 



190 Spanish Life 

The history of the part borne by the Spanish 
navy in the late war with America, as written by 
one of Admiral Cervera's captains, 1 with the 
publication of the actual telegrams which passed 
between the Government and the fleet, and the 
military commanders in the colonies, is one of 
the most heartrending examples of the sacri- 
fice, not only of brave men, but of a country's 
honour to political intrigue or the desire to retain 
office. This, at least, is the opinion of the writer 
of this painful history, and his statements are 
fully borne out by the original telegrams, since 
published. It is impossible to imagine that any 
definite policy at all was followed by the advisers 
of the Queen Regent in this matter, unless it 
were the incredible one ascribed to it by Captain 
Concas Palan of deliberately allowing the fleet, 
such as it was, to be destroyed — in fact, in the 
case of Admiral Cervera's squadron, sending it 
out to certain and foreseen annihilation — so as to 
make the disaster an excuse for suing for peace, 
without raising such a storm at home as might 
have upset the Ministry. With both fleets sunk, 
and those of their men not slain, prisoners of war, 
there was no alternative policy but peace. Cap- 
tain Concas Palan claims for his chief and the 
comrades who fell in this futile and disastrous 
affair " a right to the legitimate defence which 
our country expects from us, though it is against 

1 La Escuadra del Almirante Cervera^ por Victor M. 
Concas Palan. 



The Army and Navy 191 

the interested silence which those who were the 
cause of our misfortunes would fain impose on 
us," and says that "some day, and that probably 
much sooner than seems probable at present," the 
judgment of Spain on this episode will be that of 
the English Review, which he quotes as the 
heading of his chapter. He goes on: " War was 
accepted by Spain when the island of Cuba was 
already lost to her, and when the dispatch of a 
single soldier more from the Peninsula was in- 
finitely more likely to have caused an insurrection 
than that of which our Ministers were afraid — at 
the moment, also, when our troops were in want 
of the merest necessaries, the arrears of pay being 
the chief cause of their debilitated condition, and 
when a great part of the Spanish residents in 
Cuba, under the name of ' Reformers,' 'Auto- 
nomists,' etc., had made common cause with the 
insurgents, while they were enriching themselves 
to a fabulous extent by contracts for supplies and 
transports. In these circumstances it was folly 
to accept a struggle with an immensely rich 
country, possessing a population four times that 
of ours, and but a pistol shot from the seat of 
action." The Government of Spain was per- 
fectly aware that the troops in Cuba were already 
quite insufficient even to cope with the insurgents, 
that the people at home were already murmuring 
bitterly at the cost of the war, and that it was im- 
possible to send out a contingent of any practical 
value. Sickness of all kinds, enteric, anaemia, 



19 2 Spanish Life 

and all the evils of under-fed and badly found 
troops, were rapidly consuming the forces in 
Cuba, " and yet the Government took no thought 
of who was to man the guns whose gunners were 
drifting daily into the hospital and the cemetery. 
. . . The national debt was increasing in a 
fabulous manner, and recourse was had to the 
mediaeval remedy of debasing the currency, while 
even at that moment the troops had more than a 
year's pay in arrear, and absolute penury was 
augmenting their other sufferings." 

This was the moment which the responsible Min- 
isters of the Crown thought propitious to throw 
down the gauntlet to the overwhelming power 
of America rather than to face what the writer 
terms the " cabbage-headed riff-raff of the Plaza 
de la Cevada " of Madrid. Again and again was 
the absolute inefficiency of the fleet pointed out 
to them. Even the few ships there were, all of 
them vastly inferior to those of the United States' 
navy, were without their proper armament; they 
might have been of some service in defence of the 
coast of Spain, but in aggressive warfare they 
were useless. Allowing somewhat for the natural 
indignation of one of those who was sacrificed, 
who saw his beloved commander and his comrades- 
in-arms sent like sheep to the slaughter, and all 
for an idea, — and that a perfectly stupid and 
useless one, — there is no gainsaying the facts 
which Captain Concas Palan relates, and the 
original telegrams verify every word of his story. 



The Army and Navy 193 

Admiral Cervera was sent out with sealed orders ; 
but he had done all that was in his power — even 
asking to be relieved of his command — to prevent 
the folly of sending away from the coasts of the 
mother country the only ships which could have 
protected her, while they were absolutely useless 
against the American navy in the Antilles. Left 
with no alternative but obedience, he managed 
to gain the safe harbour of Santiago de Cuba with 
his squadron intact. Secure from attack, he 
landed his men to assist in the defence of the town 
from the land side. And then came the incredible 
orders that he was to take out his four ships to be 
destroyed by the American navy waiting outside ! 
Never in the world's history was a more magnifi- 
cent piece of heroism displayed than in the obedi- 
ence to discipline which caused Admiral Cervera 
to re-embark his marines and lead them forth to 
certain death, well knowing what they were to 
face, for he hid nothing from them. He called 
on them as sons of Spain, and they answered 
heroically, as Spaniards have ever done in his- 
tory : ' ' For honour ! ' ' 

Spain has suffered deeply and sorely in her 
pride; but she has never worn her heart on her 
sleeve — she suffers in silence. A quotation from 
the Epoca of July 5th, two days after the de- 
struction of Cervera' s fleet, shows the spirit in 
which the country bore that terrible blow. It is 
headed " Hours of Agony." " Our grief to-day 
has nothing in it which was unexpected. The 

J 3 



194 Spanish Life 

laws of logic are invincible; our four ships could 
not by any possibility have escaped the formidable 
American squadron. The one thing that Spain 
expected of her sons was that they should perish 
heroically. They have perished! They have 
faced their destiny; they have realised the sole 
end which Spain looked for, in this desperate 
conflict into which she has been drawn by God 
knows what blind fatality ; they have fallen with 
honour." 

That is true; but how about the leaders whose 
long misrule of the colonies had helped to bring 
on the disaster which their predecessors for 
many years had courted ? How about the polit- 
ical corruption which, when large sums were 
being spent on the colonies, had allowed immense 
private fortunes to be made while Manila was left 
without defences, and the absolutely unassailable 
bay of Santiago de Cuba had on the fort which 
commanded its entrance only useless old guns 
of a past century, more likely to cause the death 
of those who attempted to serve them than to in- 
jure an enemy? How about the Government 
that deliberately entered on a war of which the 
end was perfectly foreseen, and, while seated 
safely in office at home, thought the " honour of 
Spain" sufficiently vindicated by offering up its 
navy, already made useless by neglect and nig- 
gardliness, as a sacrifice ? Captain Concas Palan 
points out that even after it was fully recognised 
that the retention of Cuba was impossible, the 



The Army and Navy 195 

worst catastrophes might have been avoided. 
" In place of treating for peace while the squadron 
was intact at Santiago, which, as well as Manila, 
could have been defended for some time, the Min- 
isters waited to sue for peace until everything was 
lost, while it was perfectly well known beforehand 
that that result was inevitable." During the 
whole time, manana veremos was the rule of action 
— a to-morrow that never was to dawn for those 
whose lives it was intended to sacrifice. Heaven 
works no miracles for those who fling themselves 
against the impossible! 

So long ago as 1823, Thomas Jefferson wrote 
to President Monroe : ' ' The addition of the island 
of Cuba to our Confederacy is exactly what is 
wanted to round our power as a nation to the 
point of its utmost interest." John Quincy 
Adams went so far as to state that ' ' Cuba gravi- 
tates to the United States as the apple yet hang- 
ing on its native trunk gravitates to the earth 
which sustains it" — a statement which has the 
more force when it is remembered that for over 
fifty years the Cuban insurgents had been liber- 
ally supplied with arms, ammunition, stores, and 
troops from the United States whenever they re- 
quired them! And this, not because Cuba was 
mismanaged by Spain, but because America 
coveted her as "the most interesting addition 
that could be made to our system of States," to 
quote Jefferson once more. 

Nevertheless, the heroic sons of Spain were 



196 Spanish Life 

offered up as an expiation for the sins of her 
political jugglers for generations past. With the 
knowledge that America had at least for seventy 
years been seeking an excuse for ' ' rounding her 
power as a nation ' ' by the seizure of Cuba, no 
real effort was made to redress the grievances of 
her native population, nor to efficiently defend 
her coasts. 

The state of affairs in Manila was still worse. 
The culpable neglect of the Government had re- 
sulted in the so-called squadron not being pos- 
sessed of one single ship of modern construction 
or armament; and when the unfortunate marines 
and their heroic commanders had been immolated 
by the overwhelming superiority in numbers and 
efficiency of the Americans, the noisy injustice 
and anger of a senseless crowd at home were 
allowed to compass the lasting disgrace of casting 
the blame for the foreseen disasters on Admiral 
Montojo, who was thrown as a victim to the 
jackals. 

To-day, we find Spain absolutely without a 
navy. Two second- or third-class ships — and they 
not even properly found or armed — are all she 
possesses. Men she has, however, with the tradi- 
tions of a great past, while the officers of her navy 
are thoroughly alive to the class of ships and the 
armament which are needed to give their country 
the protection, and their foreign policy the dig- 
nity, which other countries of far less importance 
are able to sustain. No wonder that her writers 



The Army and Navy 197 

are pointing out that instead of being satisfied 
with immense long-winded despatches and notes, 
couched in grandiloquent language, which Span- 
ish Foreign Ministers seem to think amply suffi- 
cient, strong nations have a habit of sending an 
iron-clad, or two or three cruisers to back up their 
demands, and that no other European country 
but Spain thinks it safe or wise to leave her coasts 
and her commerce entirely without protection in 
case of a European war breaking out. Will the 
nation itself take the matter in hand, and in this, 
as in so many other matters, advance in spite of 
its Government ? If it waits for the political see- 
saw by which both parties avoid responsibility, 
there will be small chance of a navy. The same 
ministry is in power to-day which landed the 
country in the Spanish-American War, and it 
would seem as if the nation considers it the best 
it can produce. Manana veremos f 




CHAPTER XII 



REUGIOUS UFE 



THK natural bent of the Spanish mind is re- 
ligious. Taking the nation as a whole, 
with all its marvellous variations in race and 
character, no portion of it has ever been re- 
proached for insincerity in its religious beliefs. It 
has been often held up to reproach for bigotry 
and superstition; but the people have in past 
ages been penetrated by a sincere reverence for 
what they have believed to be religion, and per- 
haps no other nation has been more thoroughly 
imbued with an unwavering faith in the dogmas 
taught by its religious instructors. English Ro- 
man Catholics — especially those who have seceded 
from the Anglican Church — are fond of declaring 
that Spain is "a splendid Catholic country," " the 
home of true Catholicism," and so forth. To a 
certain extent this has been true of it in the past, 
and " dignity, loyalty, and the love of God " are 
still the ideals of the people at large, although in 
Spain, as in some other Continental nations, the 
practice of religious duties is now, to a great ex- 
tent, left to the women of the family and to the 



Religious Life 199 

peasantry. Young Spain, and the progressive 
party in it, can no longer be said to be under the 
domination of the Church, even in outward ap- 
pearance. It will be well if the swing of the 
pendulum does not carry them very far from it, 
and into open revolt. 

The history of the Church in Spain and of its 
relations with Rome is a curious one. It can 
scarcely be said to have been much more amenable 
to the Papacy than that of the Church of England, 
though it has remained always within the pale of 
the Roman Catholic persuasion. In the old time 
the kings aspired to be the head of the Spanish 
Church, and were none too subservient to the 
Pope. The Inquisition and the Society of Jesus 
were distinctly Spanish, and not Roman, and 
were at times actually, at variance with the Vati- 
can. Probably from their long struggles with 
the barbarians, and later with the Moors, Span- 
iards have a habit of always speaking of them- 
selves as Christians rather than Catholics, which 
strikes strangely on one's ears. 

The evils which have been wrought in Spain 
by the terrible incubus of the Inquisition, and by 
the domination of the Jesuits and other orders, 
who obtained possession of the teaching of youth, 
have been little less than disastrous, because their 
power has been deliberately used for ages past to 
keep the lower classes in a state of absolute ignor- 
ance, slaves of the grossest superstition, and mere 
puppets in the hands of the priesthood. Even 



200 Spanish Life 

well within the memory of living people it was 
thought a pity that women should be allowed to 
learn even to read and write, — safer to have them 
quite ignorant, — while the peasantry and the in- 
ferior classes believed anything they were told, 
and could be excited to any pitch of fanaticism 
by the preaching of their religious teachers. The 
Inquisition was often used as a political machine, 
and was sometimes only clothed with the sem- 
blance of religion; but by whomsoever it was 
directed, and for whatsoever purpose, it was a 
vile and soul-destroying institution. It deliber- 
ately ground down and destroyed every spark of 
intelligence, of liberty, of attempt at progress; it 
dominated the whole nation like the shadow of 
the upas tree, manufactured h3 r pocrites, and led 
to the debasing of a naturally fine people of good 
instincts to an ignorant and fanatical mob, who, 
in the name of religion, were entertained with 
gigantic autos-da-fe, as the Roman populace were 
with the terrible spectacles of their gladiatorial 
shows and the immolation of Christian victims in 
the arena. 

It was the people themselves who rose against 
this hateful tyranny; it was their better instincts 
that put an end to the " Holy Office" and its 
enormous crimes. Shortly after the Revolution 
of 1868, when religious liberty had been estab- 
lished, and the people, for the first time in their 
long history of disaster, were breathing the air of 
freedom, certain improvements which were being 



Religious Life 201 

made, in the shape of laying out new streets, 
pulling down old rookeries, and building better 
houses, led to a new road being cut through the 
raised ground outside the Santa Barbara Gate. 
The exact spot of the great Quemadero — the oven 
of the Inquisition — was not known, but it chanced 
that the workmen cut right through the very 
centre of it. A more ghastly sight, or an object- 
lesson of more potency, could scarcely be im- 
agined. The Government of the day found it 
advisable to cover it up as quickly as possible; 
the excitement of the people was thought to be 
dangerous; and though those at the head of 
affairs were no friends to the priests or the 
Jesuits, there was no desire to reawaken the 
passions and let loose the vengeance which 
led the populace in 1834 to murder them whole- 
sale. 

I happened to be returning from a ride with a 
companion when, quite accidentally, we came 
upon this excavation, and even passed down the 
new road before we realised where we were. 
The Quemadero had evidently been in the shape 
of an immense basin. There in the banks at 
each side were the stratified layers of human 
ashes; between each auto-da-fi it was evident 
that the remains had been covered with a thick 
layer of earth; finally, at the top of all these 
smaller bands of black, horrible ashes, came one 
huge deposit, which marked the awful scene 
of the last gigantic auto. This ghastly bonfire 



202 Spanish Life 

was sixty feet square, and seven feet high, as 
histor) T records, when one hundred and five vic- 
tims were slowly tortured to a frightful death in 
the name of Christ, while the King, Charles II., 
and his Court and the howling rabble of Madrid 
looked on with savage enjoyment. Nothing can 
ever obliterate the impression of that scene, nor 
make one forget the deadly clinging of those 
ghastly black ashes, which the wind scattered 
about, and which it was impossible to escape or 
to get rid of. The fell work of the " religious" 
authors of the holocaust had been well done — 
nothing was left but ashes; and the next day, by 
order of the Government, sand or soil had been 
thrown over all that could bear witness to this 
horrible episode in the history of the Church in 
Spain, while the people who inhabit the houses 
built over the spot probably know nothing of the 
records of human agony and brutal bigotry that 
still lie beneath their homes. 

We hear of these things and read of them in 
history, but one needs to have seen that awful 
memorial to realise what share the Inquisition has 
had in transforming a naturally heroic and kindly 
people into the inert masses which nothing, or 
almost nothing, would move so long as they had 
pan y t07vs (bread and bulls). Thanks to the 
horrors of the Inquisition and the A ?ctos-da-f£, the 
whole people have acquired a character which as- 
suredly they do not deserve. The blind bigotry 
and cynical cruelty of Philip II. and his lunatic 



Religious Life 203 

successors have been identified with the races over 
which, unfortunately for Spain, they ruled for so 
many years. When one remembers that this is 
the view taken of the Inquisition, and of the 
domination of the Church in effacing all kinds of 
culture, by the liberal and educated Spaniard of 
to-day, and that there is, even now, an extreme 
party which would fain see the " Holy Office " re- 
established, with all its old powers, it is easy to 
understand at what a critical point the clerical 
question has arrived in Spain; nor need one 
wonder at the feeling which in all parts of the 
kingdom has been aroused by the recrudescence 
of the religious orders, more especially of the de- 
termined struggle of the Jesuits to retain and even 
to reassert their power. 

The Madonna, who is always spoken of as " L,a 
Virgen," never as "Santa Maria," is the great 
object of love and of reverence in Spain, while 
the words Dios and Jesus are used as common ex- 
clamations in a way that impresses English people 
rather unfavourably. It is a shock to hear all 
classes using the Por Dios ! which with us is a 
mark of the purest blackguardism, and the use as 
common names of that of Our Lord and of Salva- 
dor, or Saviour, always strikes a disagreeable note. 
There is in Madrid a " Calle Jesus," and the 
sacred name, used as a common expletive, is 
heard on all sides. One of the most charming of 
Yradier's Andalusian songs, addressed by a con- 
trabandista to his novia y runs thus: 



204 Spanish Life 

Pero tengo unas patillas. 
Que patillas punala ! 
Es lo mejor que se ha jecho 
En de Jesu Cristo aca ! ' 

And no one is offended; in fact, no irreverence is 
probably meant. 

But the innumerable " Virgenes" which abound 
throughout the country, and all seem different, 
have the heartfelt devotion of all classes. To one 
or other of them the bull-fighter goes for protec- 
tion and aid before he enters the arena; the 
mother whose child lies sick vows her magnificent 
hair to the Virgin of the Atocha, or of the Pillar, 
or some of the many others scattered about the 
country, if only she will grant what she asks; 
and you may see these marvellous locks, tied 
with coloured ribbons, hanging amongst the 
motley assemblage of votive offerings by the side 
of her altar, when the prayer has been answered. 
It is difficult for us, with the best intentions, not 
to let prejudice colour our judgment, and to 
understand what we are told — that these are 
really all the same " Mother of God " ; for, if so, 
one would imagine that she would hear the de- 
vout prayers of her worshippers, to whichever of 
the wooden images — most of them said to have 
been carved by St. Luke, and black by age, if not 
by nature — they are addressed. But no, the Vir- 

1 " But I have such a stunning pair of whiskers ! 

The best that have ever been seen since those of 
Jesus Christ ! " 



Religious Life 205 

gen del Carmen is only efficacious in certain cir- 
cumstances; and in the time of Isabel II. she used 
to be taken down from her altar and placed in the 
Queen's bedroom whenever an addition to the 
Royal Family was imminent. Those in the other 
parts of Spain have each their specialty, and pil- 
grimages are necessary to their shrines before the 
prayers addressed to them can be listened to by 
the original. 

The various saints in their way are wooed with 
candles burnt before their images, or little altars 
set up to them at home; but they are sometimes 
treated with scant courtesy if they do not answer 
the expectations of their worshippers. On one 
occasion in Madrid, I remember, San Isidro, who 
is the patron of the labouring classes, had the bad 
taste, as his votaries considered, to send rain on 
his own fiesta — a thing unknown before. Lest he 
should err in this waj T again, the mob went to his 
church, at that time the principal one in Madrid, 
smashed the windows, and did all the damage 
thej T could compass before the Civil Guards came 
to the rescue. A servant-girl I knew, had for a 
long time been praying to San Antonio to send 
her a novio (sweetheart), expending money in 
tapers, and otherwise trying to propitiate the 
saint. At last, finding him deaf to all entreaties, 
she took the little wooden image she had bought, 
tied a string round his neck, and hung him in the 
well, saying: " You shall stop there till j-ousend 
me what I want." Some little time after, she 



206 Spanish Life 

actually found a novio, and hastened gratefully to 
take San Antonio out of his damp quarters, set 
him up on his altar again, and burn tapers for 
his edification. I had thought this an example 
of special ignorance and superstition; but the 
other day, in reading some of the papers of the 
Spanish Folklore Library, I found there is a wide- 
spread belief that if San Antonio, and probably 
some other saints, do not answer the prayers of 
their votaries who burn candles before them, it is 
a good thing to hang them in a well till they come 
to their senses ! It is difficult for any unbiassed 
person to understand that this is not fetish wor- 
ship, as it would certainly seem to be, but we are 
told that it is something quite different. 

The religious fiestas, as I have said, may be 
classed among the amusements of the people. 
During the warm season they invariably end 
with a bull-fight. In winter there are no bulls. 
Whether it be the Romcria of Santiago de Com- 
postelo, the Santa Scmana in Toledo or Seville, 
Noche-Buena and the Day of the Nativity in Madrid 
or Barcelona, gaiety and enjoyment seem to be 
the order of the day. Even Lent is not so bad, 
for just before it comes the Carnival and the gro- 
tesque "Burial of the Sardine " by the gen te baj'o, 
and of the three great masked balls, one is given 
in mid-Lent, to prevent the Lenten ordeal being 
too trying, and Holy Thursday is always a fiesta 
and day of enjoyment. On this day, in Madrid, 
takes place the washing of the feet of the poor in 



Religious Life 207 

the Royal Palace — a function that savours a good 
deal of the ridiculous, but which was never 
omitted by the piadosa Isabel II., and was re- 
vived by her son. For forty-eight hours the bells 
of all the churches remain silent, no vehicles are 
allowed in the streets, which are gravelled along 
the routes Royalty will take to visit on foot seven 
of the churches, where the Holy Sepulchres 
are displayed; and in the afternoon all Madrid 
resorts to the Plaza del Sol and the Carrera San 
Geronimo, to show off their gayest costumes in a 
regular gala promenade. Finally, on Saturday 
morning — why forty-eight hours only is allowed 
for the supposed entombment does not quite ap- 
pear — the bells clang forth, noise and gaiety per- 
vade the whole city, and the day ends with a 
cock-fight and the reopening of the theatres, and 
the first grand bull-fight of the season is held on 
Easter Sunday. Verily, the Church is mindful of 
the weakness of its vassals, and shows as much 
indulgence as is thought needful to keep the peo- 
ple amused and careless of all else. I remember, 
when I first noticed this wearing of the most 
gaudy colours on Maundy Thursday, a day one 
would naturally expect to be one of special 
mourning, I was told it was allowed by the 
Church because on that day Pilate put the purple 
robe on Our I^ord ! 

The processions and functions of Holy Week 
and other fiestas have been so often and so fully 
described that there is no need to refer to them ; 



2o8 Spanish Life 

but there are several curious survivals and re- 
ligious customs in out-of-the-way places which 
seem to have escaped notice. I have not been 
able to find in any book on Spain a description of 
the strange dance which takes place in the cathe- 
dral of Seville on, I think, three days in the year, 
of which two are certainly the day of the Virgin 
and that of Corpus Christi. The origin of the 
dance seems to be lost, nor is its special connec- 
tion with Seville known. All that one can hear 
of it is that one of the archbishops of Toledo 
objected to the dance as being irreverent and un- 
usual, and ordered it to be stopped. The indig- 
nant people referred the matter to the Pope, but 
even the date of this appeal seems to be dubious, 
if not unknown. His Holiness replied that he 
could not judge of the matter unless he himself 
saw the dance. Accordingly, the boys who 
figure in this strange performance were taken 
to Rome, and they solemnly danced before the 
Pope. His verdict was that there was nothing 
irreverent about the dance, but he thought, as it 
was known only to Seville, it would be better 
eventually to discontinue it; but so long as the 
dress worn on the occasions when it is practised, 
lasted, the dance might continue. The dresses 
have lasted to the present day, and will always 
continue to last, say the Sevillanos, for as one part 
wears out it is renewed, but never a whole gar- 
ment made. The dress is peculiar: it consists of 
short trousers to the knees, and a jacket which 



Religious Life 209 

hangs from one shoulder, stockings and shoes 
with large buckles or bows, and a soft hat, some- 
what of the shape of a Tam-o'-shanter, with one 
feather — that of an eagle, I think. The dress is 
red and white for the day of Corpus, and blue 
and white for the day of the Virgin, covered with 
the richest gold embroidery, for which Spain has 
always been famous. The boys, holding castanets 
in each hand, advance, dancing with much grace 
and dignity, until they reach the front of the High 
Altar; there they remain, striking their castanets 
and performing slow and very graceful evolutions 
for some time, gradually retiring again as they 
came in, dancing, down the nave. The boys are 
regularly instructed in the dance by the priests, 
and the number is kept up, so that neither dancers 
nor garments ever fail. The Pope's order is 
obeyed, while the Sevillanos retain their strange 
religious function. The fact of the performance 
taking place in the evening perhaps accounts for 
its being so little known, but it would seem also 
as if the authorities of the cathedral do not care 
to have attention drawn to it. The dance is called 
los seises, and even the origin of the name is un- 
known. 

In Holy Week and at Christmas are performed 
passion plays at some of the theatres, strangely 
realistic, and sometimes rousing the audience to 
wild indignation, especially against Judas Iscariot, 
who is hissed and hooted, and is often the recipient 

of missiles from the spectators, while interspersed 
14 



210 Spanish Life 

with this genuine feeling one hears shouts of 
laughter when anything occurs to provoke it. 
On one occasion one of the Roman soldiers (al- 
ways unpopular in the religious processions) ap- 
peared on the stage, dragging, by a cord round 
the neck, a miserable-looking man carrying a 
huge cross, so heavy that it caused him con- 
tinually to fall. As the soldier kicked him up 
again, and continued to drag him along by the 
neck, the audience became ungovernable in their 
rage. " Dejale ! Dejale! Bruto ! Bruto!" they 
yelled ; and, finally threatening to storm the stage 
and immolate the offending soldier, the play had 
to be stopped and the curtain rung down. 

In villages too poor to possesspasos — the beauti- 
fully modelled life-size figures which form the 
tableaux in the rich churches and processions — 
human actors take their place. In Castellon de 
la Plana, where there is a yearly procession in 
honour of Santa Maria Magdalena, somewhat 
curious scenes take place. The Magdalen, in the 
days of her sin, is acted by a girl chosen for her 
beauty, but not for her character. She is gor- 
geously attired, and is allowed to retain her dress 
and ornaments after the performance. She is in- 
stalled in state in a cart decorated with palms and 
flowers, and is surrounded by all the men of the 
village on foot, for it is part of the performance 
that they are allowed to say what they please to 
her. She acts the part to perfection apparently, 
and enjoys it, to boot. In another car comes the 



Religious Life 21 1 



penitent Magdalen, dressed in pure white, and 
decorated with flowers. This part may be taken 
only by a young girl of unblemished character. 
It is thought the greatest honour that can be paid 
to her, and you are told by the people that she is 
always married within the year. This procession 
winds its way up the mountain to a small shrine 
of Santa Maria Magdalena, where it is said that 
her church once stood; but finding the climb up 
the hill was inconvenient to the lame and the 
aged, she very considerately, one night, moved 
the whole edifice down intact to Castellon de la 
Plana, where it now stands. 

Going by rail once, many years ago, to Toledo, 
to see the processions on Good Friday, the train 
was accidentally delayed for some time a little 
distance from one of the stations, and there, in a 
small garden by the roadside, was being enacted 
the scene of the Crucifixion by human actors. A 
full-size cross was erected, and on It, apparently, 
hung a man crowned with thorns, and with head 
bowed upon his breast. In reality he was kneel- 
ing on two ledges placed for the purpose at a con- 
venient distance from the cross-bars. It was cold, 
and the actor was covered by an old brown tat- 
tered cloak, such as the peasants wear now, and 
which we see in Velasquez's pictures. His feet 
stuck out behind the cross, but his arms were tied 
in a position which must soon have become pain- 
ful. Around lay a cock tied by his legs, a ladder, 
a sponge tied on a stick, a sword, a lantern, and 



212 



Spanish Life 



all the usual emblems of the Passion. The holy 
women and the Roman soldiers with their spears 
were just coming out of the cottage hard by to 
take up their positions in this strange and pathetic 
tableau. The face of that peasant in the tattered 
brown cloak, not less than the spectacle of the 
people kneeling around in evident sorrow and 
worship, haunted me for many a day. 




CHAPTER XIII 



EDUCATION AND THE PRIESTHOOD 



EDUCATION, especially that of the masses, 
has made great strides since the Revolution. 
At that time perfect liberty of religion and of in- 
struction was established, and in this particular 
the somewhat retrograde movement at the Restor- 
ation, in allowing the return of the religious 
orders banished in the early years of the century, 
has only resulted in a greater number of private 
schools being established by the Jesuits and other 
teaching orders. With the public instruction they 
have never been allowed to interfere. 

Every town and village has now its municipal 
and free schools, kept up by the Diputacio7i pro- 
vincial. In all the chief towns there are technical 
and arts and crafts schools, also free, the expenses 
being borne by the Ministry of Fomento. Besides 
these are many private schools, taught by Jesuits 
and other teaching orders. The Ministry of Fo- 
mento is at present trying to bring in a law 
making education compulsory, and bringing all 
schools under State control. There are numerous 
girls' schools, managed by committees of ladies, 

213 



214 Spanish Life 

as well as the convent schools and other private 
establishments. There are also normal schools, 
maintained by the Ministry of Fomento, where 
women and girls, as well as men, can take degrees 
and gain certificates for teaching purposes. In 
every capital of Spain one of these schools is 
established. There are ten universities, of which 
the principal is that of Madrid. In some of these 
only medicine and law are studied, but others are 
open for every class of learning. In all these 
numerous schools and colleges great advance has 
been made in late years; in the department of 
science, electricity has taken a ver> noticeable 
step forward, and in applied electricity Spain 
probably compares favourably with any of the 
European nations. Even the small towns and 
some villages are lighted by electricity, having 
gone straight from petroleum to electric light. 
Most of the large towns have, besides the light, 
electric tramways, telephones, etc., the engineers 
and artisans employed in these works being of a 
very high class. Electrical engineers are not under 
Government control, as the civil and mechanical 
engineers are, and have therefore better chances 
of coining to the front and making a career for 
themselves. The Government engineers, how- 
ever, are kept up to the mark of other countries, 
and an attempt has been made by the present 
Minister to alter the system by which civil and 
mechanical engineers are compulsorily a body ap- 
pointed and controlled by Government. 



Education and the Priesthood 215 

Medical science has made great strides during 
the last ten or twelve 3^ears. The hospitals are 
reformed, and all sanitary and antiseptical ar- 
rangements are now strictly attended to, and 
brought into line with the latest developments of 
science. A fine new hospital, San Juan de Dios, 
has been built in Madrid, on the plan of St. 
Thomas's in London, and this is only one of many 
improvements. The reorganisation of all scien- 
tific teaching is now engaging the attention of 
the Minister. An excellent sign of the present 
state of medical science in Spain — which only a 
few years ago was so far behind the age — is the 
fact that the International Congress of Medicine 
is fixed to meet in Madrid, for the first time, in 
1902. 

Since the establishment of religious liberty, the 
Americans seem to have made themselves very 
busy in missionary work. Mrs. Gulick, the wife 
of the American missionary in San Sebastian, 
claims to have " proved the intellectual ability of 
Spanish girls," and has secured State examina- 
tion and recognition of her pupils by the National 
Institution of San Sebastian, and a few have even 
obtained admission to the examinations of the 
Madrid University, where they maintained a high 
rank. One always has a feeling that missionaries 
might easily find a field for their zealous labours 
in their own country; but if an impulse was 
needed from a foreign people for the initiation of 
a higher education among the daughters of Spain, 



216 Spanish Life 



they will certainly be able to carry on the work 
themselves, with such women as Kmelia Pardo 
Bazan to lead the way. Mrs. Gulick is said to 
project a college for women in Madrid without 
distinction of creed. The whole affair sounds 
a little condescending, as though America were 
coming to the aid of a nation of savages; but if 
the Spaniards themselves do not object, no one 
else has any right to do so. 

The Protestant movement has made but little 
progress in Spain. The religion is scarcely fitted 
to the genius of the people, and the Anglican 
Church has shown no desire to proselytise a na- 
tion which has as much right to its own religious 
opinions and form of worship as the English na- 
tion. The Americans and English Nonconform- 
ists are very busy, however, and talk somewhat 
largely of the results of their labours. In most of 
the large towns there are English chapels and 
schools, and a certain number among the lower 
classes of Spaniards have joined these communi- 
ties. A private diary of a visit to Madrid so long 
ago as 1877 describes the English service there. 
The congregation numbered M quite five hun- 
dred.' ' ' ' They were of the poorer classes of both 
sexes, with a sprinkling of well-dressed men and 
women. They seemed to perform their devotions 
in a spirit of entire reverence and piety, not unlike 
a similar class in our churches at home. The 
clergyman delivered an impressive and forcible 
discourse, chiefly on the honour due to the name 



Education and the Priesthood 217 

of God, and reprobated the profane use of the 
most sacred names, so common among the Spanish 
people. . . . Altogether I look upon the con- 
gregation at the Calle de Madera as a nucleus of 
genuine Protestantism in Spain." 

As this is the opinion of a perfectly unbiassed 
onlooker, and has nothing of the professional ele- 
ment about it, it may be taken as absolutely re- 
liable. In the towns, such as Bilbao, where there 
is a large English colony, there are various 
churches and chapels, and considerable numbers 
of communicants and Sunday scholars. Looking 
back, as I am able to do, to the days when there 
was no toleration for an alien faith; when even 
Christian burial for the " heretic" was quite a 
new thing, and living people could tell of the in- 
dignities heaped on the corpse of any unlucky 
English man or woman who died in ' ' Catholic ' ' 
Spain; when to have omitted, or even hesitated 
about, any of the religious actions imposed by the 
Church would have exposed one to gross insult, 
and perhaps injury; the progress towards en- 
lightened toleration of the opinions of others 
seems to have been remarkable. It is, perhaps, 
more significant that the members of the new 
congregations should be generally of the lower 
classes, because it is precisely these people who 
have always been mere unthinking puppets in the 
hands of their priests. 

Although there is at the present moment such 
a deep and widespread revolt against the Jesuits 



218 Spanish Life 

and some of the other orders, especially among 
the students and the better class of artisans and 
workmen, there is not, so far as a stranger may- 
judge, a revolt against the Church itself, nor even 
against the parochial clergy. It would seem 
rather that there is a fixed determination that the 
priests shall keep to their business, that of the 
service of religion, and shall not be allowed to in- 
terfere in secular education, or, by use of the con- 
fessional, to dominate the family; and, above all, 
that the convents shall not be filled by force, un- 
due persuasion, or cajolery. The state of the 
Roman Catholic religion and its priesthood in 
England is constantly being held up as the ideal 
of what the Church in Spain should be. 

Almost all the modern novelists of Spain show 
us characters of priests with whom every reader 
must feel sympathy. Valera, Galdos, Pardo 
Bazan, and others depict individual clerics who 
are simple, straightforward, pious, and in every 
way worthy men, the friend of the young and the 
helper of the sorrowful. Sometimes they are 
not very learned, and not at all worldly-wise, but 
they show that the type is largely represented 
amongst the priesthood of Spain, and there are not 
wanting some of distinctly liberal tendencies. 
There was a remarkable article in a Madrid paper 
of radical, if not socialistic, tendencies, the other 
day, by one who signed himself "A priest of the 
Spanish Catholic Church." Lamenting over the 
sentimentalism of modern religion, and the dis- 



Education and the Priesthood 219 

tance it had travelled from its old models, he says: 
" Instead of the Virgen being held up to admira- 
tion as the Mother of Our Lord, and as an ex- 
ample of all feminine perfection, the ideal woman 
and mother, the people are called on to worship 
the idea of the Immaculate Conception, an ab- 
stract dogma of recent invention, and in place of 
showing us the perfect man in the Son of God, 
they are asked to worship a ' bleeding heart,' ab- 
stracted from the body, and held up as an object 
of reverence, apart from the living body of Jesus 
Christ." It is the reform of the national religion 
still ardently loved in spite of all the crimes that 
have been committed in her name, that the liberal- 
minded Spaniard wants, not the substitution of 
a foreign church; although no doubt the op- 
portunity, now for the first time possible, of 
learning that there are people every whit as good 
and earnest as themselves, who yet hold religious 
opinions other than theirs, is bound to have a 
widening and softening effect on the narrowness 
of a creed which has hitherto been regarded as 
the only one. 

The extraordinary outbreak against the Jesuits 
and the religious orders of the last year had many 
causes, and had probably long been seething, and 
waiting for something to open the floodgates. 
That something came in the marriage of the 
Princess of Asturias, and the coincidence, acci- 
dental or otherwise, of the production of Galdos's 
play of Electra. The marriage was a love match; 



220 Spanish Life 

the two young sons of the Count of Caserta, who 
were nephews of the Infanta Isabel on her hus- 
band's side, had been constantly at the Palace 
in Madrid, companions of the boy King. An 
attachment sprang up between Don Carlos, the 
elder of the two, and the King's elder sister, the 
Princess of Asturias. In every way the projected 
marriage was obnoxious to the people. The 
Count of Caserta himself had been chief of the 
staff to the Pretender, Don Carlos, and though he 
and his sons had taken the oath of allegiance to 
the young King, Spaniards have learned to place 
little reliance on such oaths. Had not Montpen- 
sier sworn allegiance to his sister-in-law Isabel 
II.? and of how much was it worth when the 
time came that he thought he could successfully 
conspire against her ? To allow the heiress to 
the Crown to marry a Carlist seemed the surest 
way to reopen civil war, and upset the dynasty 
once more. Moreover, the Jesuits were supposed 
to be behind it all. The Apostolic party was ap- 
parently scotched and Carlism dead, but was not 
this one more move of the hated Jesuits to re- 
suscitate both ? The Liberal Government refused 
to allow the marriage; the Queen Regent, actu- 
ated, it is said, solely by the desire to secure what 
she considered the happiness of her daughter, who 
refused to give up her lover, was obstinate; and 
rather than give in, Sagasta and his Ministers re- 
signed. A Conservative Ministry was formed — 
the methods of manipulating elections must be 



Education and the Priesthood 221 

borne in mind — and the marriage was carried out. 
Even before the wedding-day the storm broke, 
and things looked ugly enough. Riots and dis- 
turbances occurred all over the country, as well 
as in Madrid itself; attacks were made on the 
houses of the Jesuits, who were credited with be- 
ing the authors of the situation ; and then followed 
the Government's suicidal step of suspending the 
constitutional guarantees over the whole country. 
Absolutism had once more raised its head ! The 
Conservative Ministers, or many of them, were 
accused of being mere tools in the hands of the 
Jesuits, and it was complained that the confessor 
of the young King was one of the hated order. 

For a time Spain seemed to be on the verge of 
one of her old convulsions. It appeared doubtful 
if the Queen Regent had not sacrificed the crown 
of one child to gratify the obstinacy of another. 
Fortunately, a catastrophe was averted. After 
vain efforts to retain the Conservative party in 
power, or to form a coalition, which all the best 
public men refused to join, Sagasta was once more 
recalled to power, the constitutional guarantees 
were restored, and the sharp crisis passed. But 
the attention of the nation had been attracted 
to what it considered the machinations of the 
Jesuits; order was indeed restored in Madrid and 
the provinces, but the " clerical question" had 
come to the front, and there was no possibility of 
allowing it to slumber again. It was discovered 
that not only had many of the religious orders, 



222 Spanish Life 

whose return had been allowed by convention after 
the Restoration, under certain limitations, largely 
increased their numbers beyond the limits allowed 
them, but that others had established themselves 
without any authorisation from the Government; 
also that considerable properties were being 
acquired in the country by the orders, though, of 
course, held under other names. The Chamber 
of Commerce and Industry of Madrid petitioned 
the Government to order an inquiry into the 
affairs of these religious bodies, pointing out that 
they were establishing manufactories of shoes, 
chocolate, fancy post-cards, and other objects of 
commerce, interfering with the ordinary trades, 
and underselling them, because, under the plea 
of being charitable institutions, they evaded duty. 
The heads of colleges and the Society of Public 
Teachers also asked for Government interference 
and the reassertion of the laws of 1881 and 1895, 
guaranteeing perfect liberty of instruction, be- 
cause they affirmed that the Fathers, Jesuit and 
others, undermined the teaching of science in the 
schools by means of tracts distributed to the 
pupils, and also by using the power they obtained 
in the confessional to set aside the lessons in 
science given in the colleges. 

The action of the Government was prompt and 
judicious. Strict inquiries were at once made 
into the question of the manufacturing orders, 
and those not paying the duty were reminded 
of the immediate necessity of doing so, and of 



Education and the Priesthood 223 

furnishing to the Ministry of Fomento full par- 
ticulars of the trades carried on by them. Houses 
that were permitted by convention were warned 
to reduce their numbers to those allowed by law, 
and all unauthorised orders were warned at once 
to leave the country. The Press took a dig- 
nified and moderate position in the matter. It 
pointed out that perfect religious liberty existed, 
and that all that was needful was to see that the 
religious orders obeyed the law of the country as 
other people did; but that to inaugurate a system 
of persecution would be to return to the Dark 
Ages, and to follow the bad example set by the 
Church itself in former years. 

Meanwhile, a clear intimation had been given 
by the Government that public instruction was 
absolutely free, and that no interference would 
be allowed with the teaching of science in the 
public schools. After all, public opinion alone 
can deal with the question of the confessional and 
the occult influence of the priest, for the remedy 
lies in the hands of those who place themselves 
under the domination of the confessor. 

So far, well! The riots were at an end, and 
the more sensible and law-abiding people were 
satisfied that the ground stealthily gained by the 
Jesuits had been cut from under their feet as soon 
as the full light of day had been let in on their 
proceedings. Then came the extraordinary ex- 
citement caused by Galdos's play. To a stranger 
reading it, it is obvious that the public mind must 



224 Spanish Life 

have been in a strange condition of alarm and dis- 
trust to have had such an effect produced upon it 
by a drama which has no great literary worth, 
and which appears comnlonplace and harmless to 
an outsider. The story is simply that of a young 
orphan girl, who, according to Spanish ideas, is 
extremely unconventional, though nothing worse. 
There is nothing of the emancipated young wo- 
man about her as the type is known in England ; 
in fact, she has a perfect genius for those domestic 
virtues which "advanced" English women re- 
gard with disdain. The villain of the piece, is 
a certain Don Salvador, who, though the fact 
is never mentioned, is obviously a Jesuit, and the 
interest of the play consists in the efforts made by 
this man, first by fair means and then by foul, to 
separate Electra from her fiance, and immure her 
in a convent. He succeeds, to all appearance, by 
at last resorting to an infamous lie, which reduces 
the girl to a state of insanity, in which she flies 
to the convent from the lover whom she has been 
led to believe is her own brother. Finally, by the 
action of a nun who leaves the convent at the 
same time as Electra, the truth is made known, 
and the girl is rescued. 

"You fly from me, then?" exclaims Don 
Salvador. 

" It is not flight, it is resurrection! " replies the 
lover, in the last words of the play. 

This drama ran an unprecedented number of 
nights in Madrid, over fifteen thousand copies of 



Education and the Priesthood 225 

the book were sold in a few weeks, and it is still 
running in the provinces. Some of the bishops 
and the superior clergy have had the folly to de- 
nounce the play and to forbid their congregations 
to witness or to read it. There is not an objec- 
tionable word or idea in it from first to last, ex- 
cept*such as may be disagreeable to the Church — 
as that women should be educated so as to be the 
intellectual companions of their husbands, and 
should not be entrapped into convents by foul 
means and against their will. The action taken 
by the clergy in this matter has not only largely 
advertised the play, but has led to angry demon- 
strations against them, and has strengthened the 
temper of the people to resist all clerical domina- 
tion in temporal matters. 

There have not been wanting from time to time 
signs, especially in the large manufacturing towns, 
of a spirit of revolt against all religion. Socialism, 
atheism, and even anarchism are all in the air, and 
if these are to be counteracted by religious teach- 
ing at all, it will certainly not be by the narrow 
dogmatism of the old school. There is a deep 
fund of religious feeling in the Spanish character 
which it would take a great deal to uproot, but it 
must be a wide-spirited and enlightened faith 
which will retain its hold over the people, who 
are everywhere breaking their old bonds and 

thinking for themselves. 
15 



CHAPTER XIV 

PHILANTHROPY — POSITION OF WOMEN — 
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 



TRAVELLERS complain somewhat bitterly of 
the increase in the numbers and the impor- 
tunity of beggars in Spain; but wherever monks 
abound, beggars also abound, and the long-unac- 
customed sight of the various religious habits 
naturally brings with it the hordes of miserable 
objects who afford opportunities for the faithful to 
exercise what they are taught to believe is charity 
— loved of God. This, however, is more especially 
the case in Granada, or those favoured spots 
affected by the rich tourist, who has not always 
the same opinion about indiscriminate charity as 
the native Spaniard. In old days, the wise policy 
of Charles III. had reduced very greatly the swarm 
of beggars. A certain number of terrible-looking 
objects — the fortunate possessors of withered 
limbs, sightless eyeballs, or other disqualifications 
for honest work — still ostentatiously displayed 
their badges of professional mendicancy, and 
lived, apparently quite comfortably, on the alms 
of the passers-by. But the enormous competition 

226 



Philanthropy 227 

which has since sprung up in this " career " must 
interfere a good deal with its lucrativeness. 

There is no poor law as yet in Spain. Philan- 
thropy is left to voluntary effort; but the list of 
charities is so great, and so widely spread over 
the whole country, that one would think wholesale 
beggary would be superfluous. Madrid is divided 
into thirty-three parishes, each having a board 
of Beneficincias, the Government holding a fund 
which these boards administer. The Queen is the 
President of the whole. Each board has its presi- 
dent and vice-president — generally ladies of the 
aristocracy — a treasurer, vice-treasurer, secretary, 
and vice-secretary, and a body of visitors; ac- 
counts are rendered monthly to the governing 
board, whose vice-president presides in the name 
of the Queen. There are also the confraternities 
of St. Vincent and St. Paul, the members of which 
are gentlemen and ladies who work independently 
of each other. These, however, have no estab- 
lished funds, but depend on voluntary subscrip- 
tions and gifts. Both these associations visit the 
poor in their own homes. The Pardo and the 
San Bernadino are societies and homes for bene- 
fiting men, women, and children; they have been 
founded by ladies. For boys there is the School 
of the Sacred Heart, and the Christian Brothers. 
The School of San Ildefonso belongs to the Ayun- 
tamiento, and has secular masters. There is a 
small asylum, with chaplaincy attached, for archi- 
tects. Santa Rita is a reformatory for boys in 



228 Spanish Life 

Carabanchel, under a religious brotherhood. For 
girls there is the Horfino, the Mercedes Asylum 
— founded in memory of and kept up by the rents 
of Queen Mercedes — Santa Isabel and San Ilde- 
fonso, the French St. Vincent de Paul, San Bias, 
on the same lines as the Mercedes, Santa Cruz, the 
Inclusa, and the Spanish Vincent de Paul. For 
fallen girls there are the Adorers of the Blessed 
Sacrament, the Ladies of the Holy Trinity, and 
the Oblates of the Holy Redeemer. 

In all parts of the country branches of these or 
similar institutions abound. None are more lib- 
eral to the funds of these voluntary charities than 
the bull-fighters, who, if they make large for- 
tunes, never forget the class from which they 
sprang, and are most generous in their donations. 
When occasion demands an extra effort, a fiesta is 
given at the Plaza de Toros, and the whole of the 
profits go to the charity for which it has been 
held. No doubt these schemes have their faults 
in operation, and Galdos in some of his popular 
novels does not fail to hold up — not exactly for 
admiration — the fashionable ladies who think it 
"smart," as we should say, to join these boards 
and societies, and talk with much unction of their 
public good works and the statistics of their pet 
societies, while neglecting the poor and the needy 
at their own doors, or trying to send into 
11 Homes" those who have no desire or need to 
go there if a little Christian charity were only 
shown them by their neighbours. Nevertheless, 



Position of Women 229 

there is a large amount of organised philanthropy 
in Spain to-day, and it appears to be of a wise and 
efficient kind. One should not forget to mention 
also the workshops for the lowest orders, estab- 
lished by the Salerian Fathers, to which the at- 
tention of the Government has been called by late 
events. 

The general position of women in Spain and 
their influence »n public life cannot be de- 
scribed as of an advanced order. As a rule, they 
take no leading part in politics, devoting them- 
selves chiefly to charitable works, such as those 
already named. There is, as we have seen, a 
general movement for higher education and 
greater liberty of thought and action amongst 
women, and there is a certain limited number who 
frankly range themselves on the side of so-called 
" emancipation," who attend socialistic and other 
"meetings" — a word which has now been form- 
ally admitted into the Spanish language — and who 
aspire to be the comrades of men rather than their 
objects of worship or their playthings. But this 
movement is scarcely more than in its infancy. 
It must be remembered that even within the 
present generation the bedrooms allotted to girls 
were always approached through that of the 
parents, that no girl or unmarried woman could 
go unattended, and that to be left alone in the 
room with a man was to lose her reputation. 
Already these things seem to be dreams of the 
past ; nor could one well believe, what is however 



230 Spanish Life 

a fact, that there were fathers of the upper classes 
in the first half of the last century who preferred 
that their daughters should not learn to read 
or write, especially the latter, as it only ena- 
bled them to read letters clandestinely received 
from lovers and to reply to them. The natural 
consequence of this was the custom, which so 
largely prevailed, of young men, absolutely un- 
known to the parents, establishing correspondence 
or meetings with the objects of their adoration 
by means of a complaisant doncclla with an open 
palm, or the pastime known as pelando el pavo 
(literally plucking the turkey), which consisted 
of serenades of love-songs, amorous dialogues, 
or the passage of notes through the rcja — the 
iron gratings which protect the lower windows of 
Spanish houses from the prowling human wolf — 
or from the balconies. Many a time have I seen 
these interesting little missives being let down 
past my balcony — how trustful the innocents 
were! — to the waiting gallant below, and his 
drawn up. Only once I saw a neighbour, in the 
balcony below, intercept the post, and I believe 
substitute some other letter. Cruel sport ! 

Perhaps born of this necessity of making ac- 
quaintance by fair means or foul comes the cus- 
tom, which appears to savour of such grossly bad 
manners to us, of a man making audible remarks 
on the appearance of a girl he has never seen be- 
fore as she passes him in the street. Ay ! que 
buenos ojos ! Que bonita ercs ! Que gratia tienes ! 



Marriage Customs 231 

and the like. Far from giving offence, the fair 
one goes on her way, perhaps vouchsafing one 
glance from those lovely eyes of hers, with only a 
sense that her charms have received their due 
tribute — not much elated, perhaps, but certainly 
by no means offended; nor, indeed, was offence 
intended. The fixed stare, which to us would 
mean mere ill-bred ignorance, is only another 
ordinary tribute to the passing fair one from the 
other sex. 

Marriage customs have changed much in the 
last few decades, and even civil marriages are 
now not wholly unknown. In old days, if the 
ceremony was performed in church, the bride and 
all the ladies must be attired in black, for which 
reason the fashionable world established mar- 
riages in the house, where more brilliant costumes 
might be displayed. These generally take place 
in the evening, and the newly married couple do 
not leave the house, unless the new home happens 
to be close by. In any case, honeymoon tours are, 
or were, unusual. The velada is the ceremony in 
church, which must take place before the first 
child is born, to legalise the marriage, but it does 
not necessarily immediately follow the other cere- 
mony. At it the ring is given. When the two 
ceremonies take place at the same time it must be 
in the morning, because the bride and bridegroom 
partake of the Holy Sacrament fasting. From 
the description of a boda in Galicia, in one of 
Pardo Bazan's novels, it would seem that the 



232 Spanish Life 

bride there wears white, even at the church. 
The wedding is a portentous affair, lasting all day 
from early morning, and the bride and bridegroom 
remain in the house. Fernan Caballero devotes 
some pages in Clemencia to showing how prefer- 
able is the Spanish custom of " remaining among 
friends " to that of the newly married couple, as 
she says, "exposing themselves to the jeers of 
postilions and stable-boys." Yet the English 
custom is in fact gaining ground, even in con- 
servative Spain. 

Although marriages are often made up by the 
parents and guardians, as in France, without any 
freedom on the part of the bride at least, custom 
or law gives the Spanish woman much more power 
than even in England. A girl desiring to escape 
from a marriage repugnant to her can claim pro- 
tection from a magistrate, who will even, if neces- 
sary, take her out of her father's custody until 
she is of age and her own mistress. More than 
that, if a girl determines to marry a man of whom 
her parents disapprove, she has only to place her- 
self under the protection of a magistrate to set 
them at defiance, nor have they the power to de- 
prive her of the share of the family property to 
which by Spanish law she is entitled. I do not 
know if these things are altered now, — one does 
not hear so much of them, — but I know of several 
cases where daughters have been married from 
the magistrate's house against the wishes of their 
parents. In one case, the first intimation a father 



Marriage Customs 233 

received of his daughter's engagement was the 
notice from a neighbouring magistrate that she 
was about to be married, and in another, a daugh- 
ter left her mother's house and was married from 
that of the magistrate to a man without any in- 
come and considerably below her in rank. In all 
these cases, the contracting parties were of the 
upper classes. 

While on this subject, I must mention what 
seems to us the barbarous manner in which in- 
fants are clothed and brought up, though the 
English fashions of baths, healthy clothing, and 
suitable food are now largely followed amongst 
the upper classes. When the King was still an 
infant a great deal of his clothing came from 
England, and he was brought up in the English 
method. This probably set the fashion, and the 
little ones playing in the Park now are much like 
those one is accustomed to see in London. But 
among the poor, and even some of the bourgeois 
class, the old insane customs prevail, and it is 
not surprising to hear that the death-rate among 
infants is extraordinarily high. From its birth 
the poor child is tightly wrapped in swaddling 
clothes, confining all its limbs, so that it presents 
the appearance of a mummy, swathed in coarse 
yellow flannel, only its head appearing. So stiffly 
are they rolled up that I have seen an infant only 
a few weeks old propped up on end against the 
wall, or in a corner, while the mother was busy. 
There is a superstition, too, about never washing 



234 Spanish Life 

a child's head from the day it is born. The re- 
sult is really indescribable. When it is about two 
years old, a scab, which covers the whole head, 
comes off of its own accord, and after that the 
head may be cleansed without fear of evil conse- 
quences. Some English servants who have mar- 
ried in Spain set the example of keeping their 
infants clean, and, therefore, healthy, from the 
first, and, seeing the difference in the appearance 
of the children, a few Spanish women have fol- 
lowed suit; but it requires a good deal of courage 
to break away from old traditions and set one's 
face against the sacred superstitions of ages — and 
the mother-in-law! 

One wonders, not that Spanish men grow bald 
so early, and not bald only, but absolutely hair- 
less, but that they ever have any hair at all ; for 
after all the troubles of their infancy their heads 
are regularly shaved, or the hair cut off close to 
the skin all the summer. On the principle of 
cutting off the heads of dandelions as soon as they 
appear, as a way of exterminating them, the sur- 
prising thing is that the hair does not become too 
much discouraged even to try to sprout again. 
Funny little objects they look, with only a dark 
mark on the skin where the hair ought to grow 
in summer, and at most a growth about as long 
as velvet in the winter, until they are quite big 
boys! The girls generally wear their hair so 
tightly plaited, as soon as it is long enough to al- 
low of plaiting at all, that they can scarcely close 



Marriage Customs 



2 35 



their eyes. Young Spanish women, however, 
have magnificent hair; though they, too, grow 
bald when they are old, in a way that is never 



seen in England. 




CHAPTER XV 



MUSIC, ART, AND THK DRAMA 



ONE is apt to forget how much the history of 
music owes to Spain. The country was 
for so long considered to be in a state of chronic 
political disturbance that few foreigners took up 
their abode there, except such as had business 
interests, and for the rest the mere traveller never 
became acquainted with the real life of the people, 
or entered into their intellectual amusements. 
It is quite a common thing to find the tourist 
entering in his valuable notes on a country which 
he has not the knowledge of the world to under- 
stand : ( ' The Spaniards are not a musical people, ' ' 
and remaining quite satisfied with his own dictum. 
Yet Albert Soubies, in his Histoire de la Musique, 
says, in the volume devoted to Spain: " Spain is 
the country where, in modern times, musical art 
has been cultivated with the greatest distinction 
and originality. In particular, the school of re- 
ligious music in Spain, thanks to Morales, Guer- 
rero, and Victoria, will bear comparison with all 
that has been produced elsewhere of the highest 
and most cultivated description. The national 

236 



Music, Art, and the Drama 237 

genius has also shown itself in another direction, 
in works which, like the ancient eglogas — the con- 
temporary zarzuelas of L,ope de Vega and Calderon 
— and the torradillas of the last century shine bril- 
liantly by the verve, the gaiety, the strength, and 
delicacy of their comic sentiment. . . . The 
works of this class are happily inspired by popu- 
lar art, which in this country abounds in char- 
acteristic elements. One notes how much the 
rhythm and melody display native colour, charm, 
and energy. In many cases, along with vestiges 
of Basque or of Celtic origin, they show some- 
thing of an Oriental character, due to the long 
sojourn of the Moors in this country." 

As regards this pre-eminence, it is enough to 
remember that Spain was anciently one of the re- 
gions most thoroughly penetrated by Roman 
civilisation. It is not too much to say that this 
art has never sunk into decadence in Spain. 
During the sixteenth century the archives of the 
Pontifical chapel show the important place occu- 
pied by Spanish composers in the musical history 
of the Vatican, and among the artists who gained 
celebrity away from their own country were Ksco- 
ledo, Morales, Galvey, Tapia, and many others. 
To the end of the seventeenth century a galaxy 
of brilliant names carried on the national history 
of Spanish music, both on religious and secular 
lines; and though in the eighteenth and part of 
the nineteenth centuries there was a passing in- 
vasion of French and Italian fashion, the true and 



238 Spanish Life 

characteristic native music has never died out, 
and at the present time there is a notable musical 
renaissance in touch with the spirit and natural 
genius of the people. 

A Royal Academy of Music has, within recent 
times, been added to the other institutions of a 
like kind, and native talent is being developed on 
native lines, not in imitations from countries 
wholly differing from them in national character- 
istics. Spaniards are exacting critics, and the 
best musicians of other countries are as well 
known and appreciated as their own composers 
and executants. Wagner is now a household 
word among them, where once Rossini was the 
object of fashionable admiration. The national 
and characteristic songs of Spain have been 
already referred to. They are perfectly distinct 
from those of an}- other nation. There is about 
them a dainty grace and pathos, combined fre- 
quently with a certain suspicion of sadness, which 
is full of charm, while those which are frankly 
gay are full of life, audacity, and "go," that 
carry away the listeners, even when the language 
is imperfectly understood. The charming songs, 
with accompaniment for piano or guitar, of the 
Master Yradier, are mostly w r ritten in the soft 
dialect of Andalucia, which lends itself to the 
music, and is liquid as the notes of a bird. The 
songs of Galicia are, in fact, the songs of Portu- 
gal; just as the Galician language is Portuguese, 
or a dialect of that language, wmich has less 



Music, Art, and the Drama 239 

impress of the ancient Celt-Iberian and more of 
French than its sister, Castilian, both being de- 
scendants of Latin, enriched with words borrowed 
from the different nations which have at one time 
or another inhabited or conquered their country. 

The guitar is, of course, the national instru- 
ment, and the songs never have the same charm 
with any other accompaniment; but the Spanish 
women of to-day are prouder of being able to play 
the piano or violin than of excelling in the instru- 
ment which suits them so much better. The 
Spaniard is nervously anxious not to appear, or to 
be, behind auy other European nation in what we 
call " modernity," a word that signifies that to be 
' ' up-to-date ' ' is of paramount importance, leav- 
ing wholly out of the question whether the change 
be for the better or infinitely towards the lower 
end of the scale. 

The records of Spain in art, as in literature, are 
so grand, so European, in fact, that it is much if 
the artists of to-day come within measurable dis- 
tance of those who have made the glor}' of their 
country. Nevertheless, the modern painters and 
sculptors of Spaiu hold their own with those of 
any country. After the temporary eclipse which 
followed the death of Velasquez, Ribera, and 
Murillo — the eighteenth century produced no 
great Spanish painter, if we except Goya, who 
left no pupils — Don Jose Madrazo, who studied at 
the same time as Ingres in the studio of David, 
began the modern renaissance. He became Court 



240 Spanish Life 

painter, and left many fine portraits; but, perhaps, 
as Comte Vasili says, " La ineilleure oeuvre de 
Don Jose fut son fils, Federico; de meme que la 
meilleure de celui-ci est son fils Raimundo." 

Raimuudo Madrazo and Fortuny the elder, who 
married Cecilia Madrazo, Raimundo' s sister, have 
always painted in Paris, and have become known 
to Europe almost as French artists. Fortuny, by 
his mariage Espagnol, became the head of the 
Spanish renaissance. Unfortunately, he has been 
widely imitated by artists of all nations, who have 
not a tithe of his genius, if any. Pradilla, F. 
Domingo, Gallegos, the three Beulluire brothers, 
Bilbao, Gimenez, Aranda, Carbonero, are only a 
few of the artists whose names are known to all 
art collectors, and who work in Spain. Villegas 
has settled in Rome. The exhibition of modern 
Spanish paintings in the London Guildhall last 
year (1901) was a revelation to many English 
people, even to artists, of the work that is being 
done at the present day by Spanish painters, both 
at home and in Paris and Rome. In sculpture, 
also, Spain can boast many artists of the highest 
class. 

The drama in Spain has in all times occupied 
an important place. The traditions of the past 
names, such as Calderon, Lope de Vega, Tirso de 
Molina, Moreto, and others, cannot exactly be 
said to be kept up, for these are, most of them, of 
European fame; but in a country where the the- 
atre is the beloved entertainment of all classes, 



Music, Art, and the Drama 241 

and perhaps especially so of the poor or the work- 
ing people, there are never wanting dramatists 
who satisfy the needs of their auditors, and 
whose works are sometimes translated into foreign 
languages, if not actually acted on an alien stage. 
It would be impossible and useless to give a 
mere list of the names of modern dramatists, but 
that of Ayala is perhaps best known abroad, and 
his work most nearly approaches to that of his 
great forerunners. His Consuelo, El tejado de 
Vidrio, and Tanto por ciento show great power and 
extraordinary observation. His style, too, is 
perfect. Serlor Tamago, who persistently hides 
his name under the pseudonym of ' ' Joaquin 
Kstebanez," may also be ranked amongst the 
leaders of the modern Spanish drama, and his 
Drama Nuevo is a masterpiece. Kchegaray be- 
longs to the school of the old drama, whose char- 
acteristic is that virtue is always rewarded and 
vice punished. His plays are very popular be- 
cause they touch an audience even to tears, and 
he has several followers or imitators. The come- 
dies of manners and satirical plays are generally 
the work of Eusebio Blasco, Ramos Carrion, 
Echegaray the younger, Estremada, Alverez, 
though there are others whose names are legion. 
Echegaray is really a man of genius. A clever 
engineer and professor of mathematics, he was 
Minister of Finance during the early days of the 
Revolution. His first play took the world of 

Madrid by surprise and even by storm. La 
16 



242 Spanish Life 

Esposa del Vengador had an unprecedented suc- 
cess, and at least thirty subsequent dramas, in 
prose and in verse, have made this mathema- 
tician, engineer, and financier one of the most 
famous men of his day. His art and his methods 
are purely Spanish. I have already referred to 
the phenomenal success of Perez Galdos's Electra 
within the last few months. It must, however, 
be ascribed chiefly to the moment of its presenta- 
tion rather than to any superlative merit in the 
drama. It is well written, which is what may be 
said of almost all Spanish plays, for the language 
is in itself so dignified and so beautiful that, if it 
be only pure and not disfigured by foreign slang, 
it is always sonorous and charming. To the state 
of the popular temper, however, and the coinci- 
dence of the political events already referred to 
must be ascribed the fact that a piece like Electra 
should cause the fall of a Government, and bring 
within dangerous distance the collapse of the 
monarchy itself. The excitement which it still 
produces, wherever played, is now in a great part 
due to the foolish action of some of the bishops 
and the fact that individual clerics use their pul- 
pits to condemn it, and attempt to forbid its being 
read or seen. 

Spain is not particularly rich in great actors, al- 
though she has always a goodly number who come 
up to a fair standard of excellence. The great 
actors of the day in Madrid are Maria Guerrero 
and Fernando Diaz de Mendoza. They obtained 



Music, Art, and the Drama 243 

a perfect ovation during the last season in the 
play, El loco Dios, of Echegaray — a work which 
gives every opportunity for the display of first- 
class talent in both actors, and which led to a fury 
of enthusiasm for the popular dramatist, which 
must have recalled to him the early days of his 
great successes. 

Since the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
Spain has had three great Academies, which, even 
in the troublous times of her history, have done 
good work in the domains of history, language, 
and the fine arts; but it is since the Revolution 
that they have become of real importance in the 
intellectual development of the nation, and other 
societies have been added for the encouragement 
of scientific research and music. The earliest of 
her academies was that of language, known as the 
Royal Spanish Academy. It is exactly on the 
lines of the Academie Francaise. Founded in 
1 7 13, its statutes were somewhat modified in 1847, 
and again in 1859. There are only thirty-six 
members, about eighty corresponding members in 
different provinces of Spain, and an unlimited, or 
at least undetermined, number of foreign and 
honorary correspondents. Besides the Central 
Society in Madrid, the Royal Spanish Academy 
has many corresponding branches in South 
America, such as the Columbian, the Equatorial, 
the Mexican, and those of Venezuela and San 
Salvador. The existence of academies of lan- 
guage in the South American States does not 



244 Spanish Life 

appear to effect much in the way of maintaining 
the purity of Castilian among them, for South 
American Spanish, as spoken at least, is not much 
more like the original language than the South 
American Spaniard, is like the inhabitant of the 
mother country. The dictionary of the Royal 
Academy of Spain, like that of France, is not yet 
completed. 

Philip V. founded the Royal Academy of His- 
tory in 1738. Under its auspices, especially of 
late years, much valuable work has been done in 
publishing the original records of the country, to 
be found at Simancas and other places; but the 
authentic history of Spain is still incomplete. Up 
to the time of his assassination, Don Antonio Ca- 
novas del Castillo was its director, and Don Pedro 
de Madrazo its permanent secretary. The society, 
now known as the Real Academia de San Fer- 
nando, founded in 1752, under the title of Real 
Academia de las tres nobles Artes, has now had 
a fourth added to it — that of music. The functions 
of its separate sections are much the same as those 
of the English Academy of Painting and the 
sister arts. A permanent gallery of the works of 
its members exists in Madrid, and certificates, 
diplomas, honourable mention, etc., are dis- 
tributed by the directors to successful competitors. 

Later societies are the Academies of Exact 
Science, Physical and Natural, of Moral and Po- 
litical Science, of Jurisprudence and Legislation, 
and last, but by no means least, the Royal Acad- 



Music, Art, and the Drama 245 

emy of Medicine, under whose auspices medical 
science has of late years made immense strides, 
and is probably now in line with that of the most 
advanced of other countries. 




CHAPTER XVI 

MODERN LITERATURE 

THE name of Pascual de Gayangos is known 
far beyond the confines of his own country 
as a scholar, historian, philologist, biographer, 
and critic. Although now a man of very ad- 
vanced age, he is one of the most distinguished of 
modern Orientalists, and his History of the Arabs 
in Spain, Vocabulary of the Arabic Words in 
Spanish, and his Catalogue of Spanish MSS. in the 
British Museum are known wherever the language 
is known or studied. He has published in Span- 
ish an edition of Ticknor's great work on Spanish 
literature, and has edited several valuable works 
in the Spanish Old Text Society besides innumer- 
able other historical and philological books and 
papers, which have given him a European repu- 
tation. His immense store of knowledge, his 
modesty, and his genuine kindness to all who 
seek his aid endear him as much for his personal 
qualities as for his learning. 

Next to Gayangos in the same class of work, 
Marcelino Menendez y Palayo may perhaps be 
mentioned. His History of Aesthetic Ideas in 

246 



Modern Literature 247 

Spain has been left unfinished so far, owing to 
the demands made on his time by his position in 
the political world as one of the Conservative 
leaders. Don Modesto Lafuente, though scarcely 
possessing the qualities of a great historian, is ac- 
curate and painstaking to a great degree; but in 
the field of history many workers are searching 
the archives and documents in which the country 
is so rich, and throwing light on particular periods. 
Canovas del Castillo, in spite of his great political 
duties, w T as one of the most valuable of these; and 
the eminent jurist, Don Francisco de Cardenas, 
and the learned Jesuit, Fidel Fita, and other 
members of the Academy of History are con- 
stantly working in the rich mine at Simancas. 
New papers and books are continually being 
brought out under the auspices of this society, 
throwing light on the past history of the country. 
Fernan Caballero, a German by race, but mar- 
ried successively to three Spanish husbands, may 
be said to have inaugurated the modern Spanish 
novel de costumbres, and her books are perhaps 
better known in England than those of some of 
the later novelists. By far the greater writer of 
the day in Spain, however, in light literature, is 
Juan Valera, at once poet, critic, essayist, and nov- 
elist. His Pepita yimenez is a remarkable novel, 
full of delicate characterisation and exquisite 
style, second to none produced in any country — a 
novel full of fire, and yet irreproachable in taste, 
handling a difficult subject with the mastery of 



248 Spanish Life 

genius. It has been translated into English; but 
however well it may have been done, it must lose 
immensely in the transition, because the Spanish 
of Valera is the perfection of a perfectly beautiful 
language. In this novel we have the character 
of a priest, who, while we know him only through 
the letters addressed to him by the young student 
of theology, the extremely sympathetic hero of 
the story, lives in one's memory, showing us the 
best side of the Spanish priest. Other novels of 
Valera' s, Dona Lids and El Comendador Mendoza, 
a number of essays on all sorts of subjects, critical 
and other, and poems which show great grace 
and correctness of style, have given this writer 
a high place in the literature of the age. 

Perez Galdos is a writer of a wholly different 
class, although he enjoys a very wide reputation 
in his own country and wherever Spanish is read. 
His Episodes Nacionalcs, some fifty- six in number, 
attract by their close attention to detail, which 
gives an air of actuality to the most diffuse of 
his stories. They are careful and very accurate 
studies of different episodes of national life, in 
which the author introduces, among the fictitious 
characters round whom the story moves, the real 
actors on the stage of history of the time. Thus 
Mendizabal, Espartero, Serrano, Narvaez, the 
Queen of Ferdinand VII., Cristina, and many 
other persons appear in the books, giving one the 
impression that history is alive, and not the record 
of long-dead actors we are accustomed to find it. 



Modern Literature 249 

Galdos appears to despise any kind of plot; the 
events run on, as they did in fact run on, only 
there are one or two people who take part in them 
whom we may suppose to be creations of the 
author's brain. Certainly, one learns more con- 
temporary history by reading these Episodes of 
Perez Galdos, and realises all the scenes of it 
much more vividly than one would ever do by the 
reading of ordinary records of events. As the 
tendency and the sympathy of the writer is always 
liberal, one fancies that Galdos has written with 
the determined intention to tempt a class of 
readers to become acquainted with the recent 
history of their country who would never do so 
under any less attractive form than that of the 
novel. His works must do good, since they are 
very widely read, and are extremely accurate as 
history. His play, Electra, which is just now 
giving him such wide celebrity, is of the actual 
time, and the scene is laid wholly in Madrid. 
The freedom that he advocates for women is 
merely that which Englishwomen have always 
enjoyed, or, at least, since mediaeval times, and 
has nothing in common with the emancipation 
which our " new women " claim for themselves. 
Galdos, also, is fond of introducing the simple- 
minded and honest, if not very cultivated, priest. 
His style is pure, without any great pretention 
to brilliancy, or any of the straining after effect 
which so many of the English writers seem to 
think gives distinction. 



250 Spanish Life 

Pedro Alarcon is novelist first, and historian, 
poet, and critic afterwards. That is to say, his 
novels are his best-known and most widely read 
works. He has two distinct styles. His Sombrero 
de Tres Picos is a fascinating sketch of quaint old 
village life, full of quiet grace, while El Escdndalo 
and La Prodiga are of the sensational order. He 
writes, like Galdos, in series, such as Historietas 
Nacionales, Narraciones Inverosimiles, and Viajes 
por Espana. Parada is a native of Santander, 
and writes of his beloved countrymen. Sotilezas, 
his best-known, and perhaps best, novel, treats of 
life among the fisher-folk of Santander, before it 
became an industrial town. Writing in dialect 
makes many of his stories puzzling, if not impossi- 
ble for foreign readers. 

The lady who writes under the pseudonym of 
" Emelia Pardo Bazan " may be said to be the 
leader or the pioneer of women's emancipation in 
the sense in which we use the words. She is a nat- 
ive of Galicia,and is imbued with that intense love 
of her native province which distinguishes the 
people of the mountains. Her novels are chiefly 
pictures of its scenery and the life of its people, 
though in at least one she does not hesitate to 
take her readers behind the scenes of student life 
in Madrid. It would not be fair to apply to this 
writer's work the standard by which we judge an 
English work, because in Spain there is a frank- 
ness, to call it by no other name, in discussing in 
mixed company subjects which it would not be 



Modern Literature 251 

thought good taste to mention under the same 
circumstances with us. U?ia Cristiana and La 
Pracba, its sequel, are founded on the sex problem, 
and, probably without any intention of offence, 
Pardo Bazan has worked with a very full brush 
and a free hand, if I may borrow the terms from 
a sister art. Her articles on intellectual and 
social questions show an amount of education and 
a breadth of view which place her among the best 
writers of her nation. She is not in the least 
blinded by her patriotism to the faults of her 
country, especially to the hitherto narrow educa- 
tion of its women. She holds up an ideal of a 
higher type — a woman who shall be man's intel- 
lectual companion, and his helper in the battle of 
life. She is by no means the only woman writer 
in Spain at the present time; but she is the most 
talented, and occupies certainly the highest place. 
Her writings are somewhat difficult for anyone 
not conversant with Portuguese, or, rather, with 
the Galician variety of the Spanish language, for 
the number of words not to be found in the Spanish 
dictionary interfere with the pleasure experienced 
by a foreigner, and even some Castilians, in read- 
ing her novels. Pardo Bazan was an enthusiastic 
friend and admirer of Castelar, and belongs to his 
political party. A united Iberian republic, with 
Gibraltar restored to Spain, is, or was, its pro- 
gramme. 

Hermana San Sulpicio, by Armando Palacio 
Valdes, is one of the charming, purely Spanish 



252 Spanish Life 

novels which has made a name for its author be- 
yond the confines of his own country; but since 
that was produced he has gone for his inspiration 
to the French naturalistic school, and, like some 
English writers, he thinks that repulsive and in- 
decent incidents, powerfully drawn, add to the 
artistic value of his work. Padre Luis Coloma, a 
Jesuit, obtained a good deal of attention at one 
time by his Pequeneces, studies, written in gall, of 
Madrid society. His stories are too narrowly 
bigoted in tone to have any lasting vogue, and 
his views of life too much coloured by his ultra- 
montane tendencies to be even true. Nunez de 
Arce is, like so many Spaniards of the last few 
decades, at once a poet and a politician. He 
played a stirring part from the time of the Revol- 
ution to the Restoration, always on the side of 
liberty, but never believing in the idea of a re- 
public. His Gritos del Combate were the agonised 
expression of a fighter in his country's battle for 
freedom and for light. Since the more settled 
state of affairs, Nunez de Arce has written many 
charming idyls and short poems. In the Idilio is 
a wonderful picture of the, to some of us, barren 
scenery of Castile, in which the eye of the artist 
sees, and makes his readers see, a beauty all the 
more striking because it is hidden from the ordin- 
ary gaze. 

Of Jose Zorilla as a poet there is little need 
to speak. His countrymen read his voluminous 
works, but they are not of any real value. Cam- 



Modern Literature 253 

poamor describes his Dorloras as ' ' poetic composi- 
tions combining lightness, sentiment, and brevity 
with philosophic importance. ' ' His earlier works 
were studied from Shakespeare and from Byron, 
who was the star of the age when Campoamor 
began to write. His most ambitious work, the 
Universal Drama y is " after Dante and Milton." 
He is a great favourite with his fellow-country- 
men, both as poet and companion. He is a mem- 
ber of the Academy and a Senator. 

It is impossible, however, to do more than indi- 
cate a few of the writers who are leaders in the 
literature of Spain to-day. There has, in fact, 
been an immense impulse in the production of 
books of all classes within the last twenty or 
thirty years. In fiction, Spain once more aspires 
to have a characteristic literature of her own, in 
place of relying on translations from the French, 
as was the case for a brief time before her political 
renaissance began. 

A notable departure has been the foundation 
of the Folklore Society, and the publication up to 
the present time of eleven volumes under the name 
of Biblioteca de las Tradiciones Populares Espanolas, 
under the direction of Senor Don Antonio Ma- 
chado y Alvarez. In the introduction to the first 
volume, the Director tells us that, with the help 
of the editor of El Folklore Andaluz and his 
friends, D. Alejandro Guichot y Sierra and D. 
Luis Montolo y Raustentrauch, he has under- 
taken this great work, which arose out of the 



254 Spanish Life 

Bases del Folklore Espanol, published in 1881, and 
the two societies established in 1882, the Folk- 
lore Andaluz and Folklore Extremeiio. These 
societies have for object the gathering together, 
copying, and publishing of the popular beliefs, 
proverbs, songs, stories, poems, the old customs 
and superstitions of all parts of the Peninsula, in- 
cluding Portugal, as indispensable materials for 
the knowledge and scientific reconstruction of 
Spanish culture. In this patriotic and historical 
work many writers have joined, each bringing 
his quota of garnered treasure- trove, presenting 
thus, in a series of handy little volumes, a most 
interesting collection of the ancient customs, be- 
liefs, and, in fact, the folklore of a country ex- 
ceptionally rich in widely differing nationalities. 

Many of the tales, which it would seem even 
at the present time, especially in Portugal and 
Galicia, are told in the evening, and have rarely 
found their way into print, have the strong stamp 
of the legitimate Eastern fable, and bear a great 
family resemblance to those of the Arabian Nights. 
As, in fact, the Thousand and One Nights was 
very early published in Spanish, it is probable 
that its*marvellous histories were known verbally 
to the people of the Iberian continent for many 
centuries, and have coloured much of its folklore. 
The Ingenious Stude?it is certainly one of these. 
Barbers also play an important part in many of 
these tales. It is quite common for the Court 
barber to marry the King's daughter, and to 



Modern Literature 255 

succeed him as ruler; but the barber was, of course, 
surgeon or blood-letter as well as the principal 
news-agent — the forerunner of the daily newspaper 
of our times. The transmutation of human be- 
ings into mules, and vice versa, is a common fable, 
and we meet with wolf-children and the curious 
superstition that unbaptised people can penetrate 
into the domains of the enchanted Moors, and 
that these have no power to injure them. The 
story of the Black Slave, who eventually married 
the King's daughter and had a white mule for 
his Prime Minister, is very Eastern in character. 
11 From so wise a King and so good a Queen the 
people derived great benefit; disputes never went 
beyond the ears of the Chief Minister, and, in the 
words of the immortal barber and poet of the city, 
1 the kingdom flourished under the guidance of a 
mule: which proves that there are qualities in the 
irrational beings which even wisest ministers 
would do well to imitate. ' ' ' The Watchful Ser- 
vant is, however, purely Spanish in character, and 
it closes with the proverb that "a jealous man on 
horseback is first cousin to a flash of lightning." 
King Robin, the story of how the beasts and birds 
revenged themselves on Sigli and his father, the 
chief of a band of robbers, recalls " Uncle Remus " 
and his animal tales; for the monkeys, at the 
suggestion of the fox, and with the delighted 
consent of the birds and the bees, made a figure 
wholly of birdlime to represent a sleeping beggar, 
being quite certain that Sigli would kick it the 



256 Spanish Life 

moment that he saw the intruder from the win- 
dows of his father's castle. In effect both father 
and son became fast to the birdlime figure, when 
they were stung to death by ten thousand bees. 
Then King Robin ordered the wolves to dig the 
grave, into which the monkeys rolled the man 
and the boy and the birdlime figure, and, after 
covering it up, all the beasts and birds and insects 
took possession of the robbers' castle, and lived 
there under the beneficent rule of King Robin. 

Silver Bells is, again, a story of a wholly different 
type, and charmingly pretty it is, with its new 
development of the wicked step-mother — in this 
case a mother who had married again and hated 
her little girl by the first husband. Elvira, the 
Sainted Princess, tells how the daughter of King 
Wamba, who had become a Christian unknown 
to her father, by her prayers and tears caused his 
staff to blossom in one night, after he had deter- 
mined that unless this miracle were worked by 
the God of the Christians she and her lover should 
be burned. 

One fault is to be found with these old stories 
as remembered and told by Mr. Sellers; that is, 
the introduction of modern ideas into the Old- 
World fables of a primitive race. Hits at the 
Jesuits, the Inquisition, and the government of 
recent kings take away much of the glamour of 
what is undoubtedly folklore. The story of the 
Black Hand seems to have many varieties. It is 
somewhat like our stories of Jack and the Bean 



Modern Literature 257 

Stalk and Bluebeard, but differs, to the advantage 
of the Spanish ideal, in that the enchanted prince 
who is forced to play the part of the terrible Blue- 
beard during the day voluntarily enters upon a 
second term of a hundred years' enchantment, so 
as to free the wife whom he loves, and who goes 
off safely with her two sisters and numerous other 
decapitated beauties, restored to life by the self- 
immolation of the prince. The White Dove is 
another curious and pretty fable which has many 
variations in different provinces — a story in which 
the King's promise cannot be broken, though it 
ties him to the hateful negress who has trans- 
formed his promised wife into a dove, and has 
usurped her place. Eventually, of course, the 
pet dove changes into a lovely girl again, when 
the King finds and draws out the pins which the 
negress has stuck into her head, and the usurper 
is " burnt" as punishment — an ending which 
savours of the Quemadero. 

The making of folklore is not, however, extinct 
in Spain, a country where poetry seems to be an 
inherent faculty. One is constantly reminded of 
the Spanish proverb, De poetas y de locos, todos 
tenemos un poco (We have each of us somewhat of 
the poet and somewhat of the fool). No one can 
tell whence the rhymed jenx d^ esprit come; they 
seem to spring spontaneously from the heart and 
lips of the people. Children are constantly heard 
singing coplas which are evidently of recent pro- 
duction, since they speak of recent events, and 
17 



258 Spanish Life 

yet which have the air of old folklore ballads, of 
concentrated bits of history. 

Rey inocente — a weak king, 
Reina traidora — treacherous queen, 
Pueblo cobarde — a coward people, 
Grandes sin honra — nobles without honour, 

sums up and expresses in nine words the history 
of Goday's shameful bargain with Napoleon. 

En el Puente de Alcol£a 

La batalla gan6 Prim, 
Y por eso la cantaraos 

En las calles de Madrid. 

At the bridge of Alcolda 
A great battle gained Prim, 

And for this we go a-singing 
In the streets of Madrid. 

Senor Don Eugenio de Olavarria-y Huarte, in 
citing this copla {Folklore de Madrid), points out 
that it contains the very essence of folklore, since 
it gives a perfectly true account of the battle of 
Alcolea. Although Prim was not present, he was 
the liberator, and without him the battle would 
never have been fought, nor the joy of liberty 
have been sung in the streets of the capital. 
There is seldom, if ever, any grossness in these 
spontaneous songs of the people — never indecency 
or double meaning. No sooner has an event 
happened than it finds its history recorded in 



Modern Literature 259 

some of these popular coplas, and sung by the 
children at their play. 

The Folklore Society has some interesting in- 
formation to give about the innumerable rhymed 
games which Spanish children, like our own, are 
so fond of playing, many of them having an origin 
lost in prehistoric times. One finds, also, from 
some of the old stories, that the devils are much 
hurt in their feelings by having tails and horns 
ascribed to them. As a matter of fact, they have 
neither, and cannot understand where mortals 
picked up the idea ! The question is an interest- 
ing one. Where did we obtain this notion ? 




CHAPTER XVII 

THE FUTURE OF SPAIN 

AN Englishman who, from over thirty years' 
residence in Spain and close connection with 
the country, numbered among her people some 
of his most valued friends, thus speaks of the 
national characteristics: 

" The Spanish and English characters are, in- 
deed, in many points strangely alike. Spain 
ranks as one of the Latin nations, and the Repub- 
lican orators of Spain are content to look to France 
for light and leading in all their political combin- 
ations; but a large mass of the nation, the bone 
and sinew of the country, the silent, toiling tillers 
of the soil, are not of this way of thinking. . . . 
There is a sturdy independence in the Spanish 
character, and an impatience of dictation that 
harmonises more nearly with the English char- 
acter than with that of her Latin neighbours. 
. . . There is a gravity and reticence also in 
the Spaniard that is absent from his mercurial 
neighbour, and which is, indeed, much more 
akin to our cast of temper. 

" True it is that our insular manners form at 

260 



The Future of Spain 261 

first a bar to our intercourse with the Spaniard, 
who has been brought up in a school of deliberate 
and stately courtesy somewhat foreign to our 
business turn of mind; but how superficial this 
difference is may be seen by the strong attach- 
ment Englishmen form to the country and her 
people, when once the strangeness of first ac- 
quaintance has worn off; and those of us who 
know the country best will tell you that they 
have no truer or more faithful friends than those 
they have amongst her people." 

Speaking of her labouring classes, and as a 
very large employer of labour in every part of 
the Peninsula he had the best possible means of 
judging, this writer says: 

' ' The Spanish working man is really a most 
sober, hard-working being, not much given to 
dancing, and not at all to drinking. They are 
exceptionally clever and sharp, and learn any 
new trade with great facility. They are, as a 
rule, exceedingly honest — perfect gentlemen in 
their manners, and the lowest labourer has an 
aplomb and ease of manner which many a person 
in a much higher rank in this country might 
envy. When in masses they are the quietest and 
most tractable workmen it is possible to have to 
deal with. The peasant and working man, the 
real bone and sinew of the country, are as fine a 
race as one might wish to meet with — not free 
from defects — what race is ? — but possessed of 
excellent sterling qualities, which only require 



262 Spanish Life 

knowing to be appreciated. I cannot say as 
much for the Government employees and poli- 
ticians. Connection with politics seems to have 
a corrupt and debasing effect, which, although 
perhaps exaggerated in Spain, is, unfortunately, 
not by any means confined to that country 
only." ' 

In Spain to day everything is dated from " La 
Gloriosa," the Revolution of 1868, the " Day of 
Spanish Liberty," as it well deserves to be called, 
and there is every reason to look back with pride 
upon that time; because, after the battle of Al- 
colea, when the cry raised in the Puerta del Sol, 
Viva Prim ! was answered by the troops shut up 
in the Government offices, and the people, swarm- 
ing up the rejas and the balconies, fraternised 
with their brothers-in-arms, who had been in- 
tended, could they have been trusted by their 
commanders, to shoot them down, Madrid was 
for some days wholly in the hands of King 
Mob, and of King Mob armed. The victorious 
troops were still at some distance, the Queen and 
her camarilla had fled across the frontier, the Gov- 
ernment had vanished, and the people were a law 
unto themselves. Yet not one single act of vio- 
lence was committed; absolute peace and quiet- 
ness, and perfect order prevailed. The ragged 
men in the street formed themselves into guards: 
just as they w T ere, they took up their positions at 

1 Commercial and Industrial Spain, by George Higgin, 
Mem. Inst. C. E., London, 1886. 



The Future of Spain 263 

the abandoned Palace, at the national buildings 
and institutions; the troops were drawn up out- 
side Madrid and its people were its guardians. 
Committees of emergency were formed; every- 
thing went on as if nothing unusual had happened, 
and not a single thing was touched or destroyed 
in the Palace, left wholly at the mercy of the sov- 
ereign people. The excesses which took place in 
some of the towns, after the brutal assassination 
of Prim and the abdication of Amadeo, were rather 
the result of political intrigue and the working of 
interested demagogues on the passions of people 
misled and used as puppets. 

With the advance of commerce and industry, 
and the massing of workers in the towns, has 
come, as in other countries, the harvest of the dem- 
agogue. Strikes and labour riots now and then 
break out, and the Spanish anarchist is not un- 
known. But the investment of their money in 
industrial and commercial enterprises, so largely 
increasing, is giving the people the best possible 
interest in avoiding disturbances of this, or of any 
other, kind: and as knowledge of more enlight- 
ened finance is penetrating to the working people 
themselves, the number who are likely to range 
themselves on the side of law and order is daily 
increasing. The improved railway and steamer 
communication with parts of the country hereto- 
fore isolated, much of it only completed since this 
book was begun — in fact, within the last few 
months — is bringing the northern and western 



264 Spanish Life 

ports into prominence. Galicia now not only has 
an important industry in supplying fresh fish for 
Madrid, but has a good increasing trade with 
Europe and America. Pontevedra and Vigo, as 
well as Villagarcia, are improving daily since the 
railway reached them. Fresh fruit and vegetables 
find a ready market, and new uses for materials 
are coming daily to the front. Esparto, the 
coarse grass which grows almost everywhere in 
Spain, has long been an article of commerce, as 
well as the algaroba bean — said to be the locust 
bean, on which John the Baptist might have 
thriven — for it is the most fattening food for 
horses and cattle, and produces in them a singu- 
larly glossy and beautiful coat. This bean, which 
is as sweet as a dried date, is given, husk and all, 
to the mules and horses at all the little wayside 
ventas, and is now used in some of the patent 
foods for cattle widely known abroad. The stalk 
of the maize is used for making smokeless 
powder, and the husks for two kinds of glucose, 
two of cotton, three of gum, and two of oil. Glucea 
dextrina paste is used as a substitute for india- 
rubber. These products of the maize, other than 
its grain, are employed in the preparation of pre- 
serves, syrup, beer, jams, sweets, and drugs, and 
in the manufacture of paper, cardboard, mucilage, 
oils and lubricants, paints, and many other things. 
The imitation india-rubber promises to be the 
basis of a most important industry. Mixed with 
equal portions of natural gum, it has all the quali- 



The Future of Spain 265 

ties of india-rubber, and is twenty-four per cent, 
less in cost. 

A great deal has been said about the deprecia- 
tion of the value of the peseta (franc) since the 
outbreak of the war with America, but this un- 
satisfactory state of affairs is gradually mending; 
and. the attention of the Government is thoroughly 
awakened to it. The law of May 17, 1898, and 
the Royal decree of August 9 provide that if the 
notes in circulation of the Bank of Spain exceed 
fifteen hundred millions, gold must be guaranteed 
to the half of the excess of circulation between 
fifteen hundred and two thousand, not the half of 
all the notes in circulation. The metal guarantee, 
silver and gold, must cover half of the note circu- 
lation, when the latter is between fifteen hundred 
and two thousand millions, and two-thirds when 
the circulation exceeds two thousand. But the 
Bank has not kept this precept, and there has, in 
fact, been an illegal issue of notes to the value of 
6,752,813 pesetas. So states the B olefin de la 
Cd?nara de Comercio de Espana en la Gran Bretdna 
of April 15, 1901. 

The Boletin, after giving an account of the 
English custom of using cheques against banking 
accounts, instead of dealing in metal or paper 
currency only, as in Spain, strongly advocates the 
establishment of the English method. It is only 
in quite recent years that there has been any 
paper currency at all in Spain; the very notes of 
the Bank of Spain were not current outside the 



266 Spanish Life 

walls of Madrid, and had only a limited currency 
within. 

Barcelona has long been called the Manchester 
of Spain, and in the da3 r s before the " Gloriosa " 
it presented a great contrast to all the other towns 
in the Peninsula. Its nourishing factories, its 
shipping, its general air of a prosperous business- 
centre was unique in Spain. This is no longer 
the case. Although the capital of Catalufia has 
made enormous strides, and would scarcely now 
be recognised by those who knew it before the 
Revolution, it has many rivals. Bilbao is already 
ahead of it in some respects, and other ports, al- 
ready mentioned, are running it very close. Still, 
Barcelona is a beautiful city; its situation, its 
climate, its charming suburbs full of delightful 
country houses, its wealth of flowers, and its air 
of bustling industry, give a wholly different idea 
of Spain to that so often carried away by visitors 
to the dead and dying cities of which Spain has, 
unfortunately, too many. 

It is becoming more common for young Span- 
iards to come to England to finish their educa- 
tion, or to acquire business habits, and the study 
of the English language is daily becoming more 
usual. In Spain, as already remarked, no one 
speaks of the language of the country as " Span- 
ish " ; it is always" Castellano," of which neither 
Valencian, Catalan, Galician, still less Basque, 
is a dialect — they are all more or less languages 
in themselves. But Castellano is spoken with a 



The Future of Spain 267 

difference both by the pueblo bajo of Madrid and 
also in the provinces. The principal peculiarities 
are the omission of the d—prado becomes prab — 
in any case the pronunciation of d, except as an 
initial, is very soft, similar to our th in thee, but 
less accentuated. The final d is also omitted by 
illiterate speakers; Usted is pronounced Uste, and 
even de becomes e. B and v are interchangeable. 
One used to see, on the one-horsed omnibus 
which in old times represented the locomotion of 
Madrid, Serbicio de omnibus quite as often as Ser- 
vicio. Over the venta of El Espirito Santo on the 
road to Alcala — now an outskirt of Madrid — was 
written, Aqiti se veve bino y aguaardiente — mean- 
ing, Aqui se bebe vino, etc. (Here may be drunk 
wine). 

The two letters are, in fact, almost interchange- 
able in sound, but the educated Spaniard never, 
of course, makes the illiterate mistake of transpos- 
ing them in writing. The sound of b is much 
more liquid than in English, and to pronounce 
Barcelona as a Castilian pronounces it, we should 
spell it Va?relona ; the same with Cordoba, which 
to our ears sounds as if written Cordova; and so, 
in fact, we English spell it. 

Spaniards, as a rule, speak English with an 
excellent accent, having all the sounds that the 
English possess, taking the three kingdoms, Eng- 
land, Scotland, and Ireland, into account. 

Our th, which is unpronounceable to French, 
Italians, and Germans, however long they may 



268 Spanish Life 

have lived in England, conies naturally to the 
Spaniard, because in his own d, soft c, and z he 
has the sounds of our th in " //zee " and " //zin." 
His ch is identical with ours, and his j and x are 
the same as the Irish and Scotch pronunciation 
of ch and gh. 

The Spanish language is not difficult to learn — 
at any rate to read and understand — because there 
are absolutely no unnecessary letters, if we except 
the initial h, which is, or appears to us, silent — 
and the pronunciation is invariable. What a 
mine of literary treasure is opened to the reader 
by a knowledge of Spanish, no one who is ignorant 
of that majestic and poetic language can imagine. 
With the single exception of Longfellow's beauti- 
ful rendering of the Coplas de Ma?irique, which is 
absolutely literal, while preserving all the grace 
and dignity of the original, I know of no transla- 
tion from the Spanish which gives the reader any 
real idea of the beauty of Spanish literature in the 
past ages, nor even of such works of to-day as 
those of Juan Valera and some others. 

Picturesque and poetic ideas seem common to 
the Spaniard to-day, as ever. Only the other day, 
in discussing the monument to be erected to Al- 
fonso XII. in Madrid, one of the newspapers re- 
ported the suggestion — finally adopted, I think — 
that it should be an equestrian statue of the young 
King, " with the look on his face with which he 
entered Madrid after ending the Carlist w r ar." 
What a picture it summons to the imagination of 



The Future of Spain 269 

the boy King — for he was no more — in the pride 
of his conquest of the elements of disorder and of 
civil war, which had so long distracted his beloved 
country — a successful soldier and a worthy King! 

Spain is a country of surprises and of contra- 
dictions; even her own people seem unable to 
predict what may happen on the morrow. Those 
who knew her best had come to despair of her 
emancipation at the very moment when Prim and 
Topete actually carried the Revolution to a suc- 
cessful issue. Again, after the miserable fiasco 
of the attempt at a republic, the world, even in 
Spain itself, was taken by surprise by the peace- 
ful restoration of Alfonso XII. 

I can, perhaps, most fitly end this attempt at 
showing the causes of Spain's decay and portray- 
ing the present characteristics of this most inter- 
esting and romantic nation by a quotation from 
the pen of one of her sons. Don Antonio Ferrer 
del Rio, Librarian of the Ministry of Commerce, 
Instruction, and Public Works, and member of 
the Reales Academias de Buenas L,etras of Seville 
and Barcelona, thus writes, in his preface to his 
Decadencia de Espana, published in Madrid in 
1850: " It is my intention to point out the true 
origin of the decadence of Spain. The imagina- 
tion of the ordinary Spaniard has always been 
captivated by, and none of them have failed to 
sing the praises of, those times in which the sun 
never set on the dominion of its kings." While 
professing not to presume to dispute this former 



270 Spanish Life 

glory, Senor Ferrer del Rio goes on to say that 
he only aspires to get at the truth of his country's 
subsequent decay. ' ' There was one happy epoch 
in which Spain reached the summit of her great- 
ness—that of the Reyes Catolicos, Don Fernando 
V. and Dona Isabel I. Under their reign were 
united the sceptres of Castilla, Aragon, Navarra, 
and Granada; the feudal system disappeared — it 
had never extended far into the eastern limits of 
the kingdom — the abuses in the Church were in 
great measure reformed, the administration of the 
kingdom with the magnificent reign of justice be- 
gan to be consolidated, in the Cortes the powerful 
voice of the people was heard; and almost at the 
same moment Christian Spain achieved the con- 
quest of the Moors, against whom the different 
provinces had been struggling for eight centuries, 
and the immortal discovery of a new world. Up 
to this moment the prosperity of Spain was rising; 
from that hour her decadence began. With her 
liberty she lost everything, although for some 
time longer her military laurels covered from 
sight her real misfortunes." After referring to 
the defeat of the Comuneros, and the execution of 
Padilla and his companions, champions of the 
people's rights, he goes on to show that while the 
aristocracy had received a mortal blow in the reign 
of Ferdinand and Isabella in the cause of consoli- 
dating the kingdom and of internal order, they 
had retained sufficient power to trample on the 
liberties of the people, while they were not strong 



The Future of Spain 271 

enough to form a barrier against the encroach- 
ments of the absolute monarchs who succeeded, 
or to prevent the power eventually lapsing into 
the hands of the Church. " Consequently, the- 
ocracy gained the ascendency, formidably aided 
and strengthened by the odious tribunal whose 
installation shadowed even the glorious epoch of 
Isabel and Fernando, absorbing all jurisdiction, 
and interfering with all government. Religious 
wars led naturally to European conflicts, to the 
Spanish people being led to wage war against 
heresy everywhere, and the nation — exhausted by 
its foreign troubles, oppressed internally under 
the tyranny of the Inquisition, which, usurping 
the name of ' Holy,' had become the right hand 
of the policy of Charles V., and the supreme 
power in the Government of his grandson, Philip 
II. — lost all the precious gifts of enlightenment 
in a blind and frantic fanaticism. The people 
only awoke from lethargy, and showed any ani- 
mation, to rush in crowds to the Autos da fS y in 
which the ministers of the altar turned Christian 
charity into a bleeding corpse, and reproduced 
the terrible scenes of the Roman amphitheatre. 
Where the patricians had cried ' Christians to 
the lions ! ' superstition shouted ' Heretics to the 
stake ! ' Humanity was not less outraged than 
in the spectacle of Golgotha. Spanish monarchs 
even authorised by their presence those san- 
guinary spectacles, while the nobles and great 
personages in the kingdom thought themselves 



272 Spanish Life 

honoured when they were made alguiciles y or 
familiars of the holy office. Theocratic power 
preponderated, and intellectual movement be- 
came paralysed, civilisation stagnated." 

This has ever been the result of priestly rule. 
One can understand the feeling of the liberal- 
minded Spaniard of to-day that, without wishing 
to interfere with the charitable works inaugurated 
by the clergy, nor desiring in any way to show 
disrespect to the Church, or the religion which is 
dear to the hearts of the people, a serious danger 
lies, as the Press is daily pointing out, in the 
religious orders, more especially the Jesuits, ob- 
taining a pernicious influence over the young, 
undermining by a system of secret inquisition the 
teachings of science, gaining power over the minds 
of the officers in the army, and establishing a press 
agency which shall become a danger to the con- 
stitution. 

Spain's outlook seems brighter to-day than it 
has ever been since her Golden Age of Isabella and 
Ferdinand; and it is the people who have awak- 
ened, a people who have shown what power lies 
in them to raise their beloved country to the posi- 
tion which is her right among the nations of the 
world. But prophecy is vain in a country of 
which it has been said " that two and two never 
make four." This year, if all go well meantime, 
Alfonso XIII. will take the reins in his own hands 
— a mere boy, even younger than his father was 
when called to the throne; than whom, however, 



The Future of Spain 273 

Spain has never had a more worthy ruler. But 
Alfonso XII. had been schooled by adversity — he 
had to some extent roughed it amongst Austrian 
and English boys. He came fresh from Sand- 
hurst and from the study of countries other than 
his own. To a naturally clever mind he had 
added the invaluable lesson of a knowledge of 
the world as seen by one of the crowd, not from 
the close precincts of a court and the elevation of 
a throne. 

For his son it may be said that he has been 
born and carefully educated in a country where 
absolutism is dead, and by a mother who, as 
Regent, has scrupulously observed the laws of 
the constitution. He will come, as King, to a 
country which has known the precious boon of 
liberty too long to part with it lightly; to a king- 
dom now, for the first time in history, united as 
one people ; where commerce and mutual interests 
have taken the place of internecine distrust and 
hatred. It is only at the present moment that 
this happy condition of things is spreading over 
the country; each month, each week, giving 
fresh evidence of new industries arising, of fresh 
capital invested in the development of the country. 
It is in the sums so invested by the mass of the 
people that those who believe in a bright future 
for Spain place their hopes; but we may all of us 
wish the young monarch for whom his country is 

longing, " God-speed." 

18 



PORTUGUESE LIFE IN TOWN 
AND COUNTRY 



275 



PORTUGUESE LIFE 
IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 



CHAPTER XVIII 



LAND AND PEOPLE 



IT has been said, and it is often repeated, that if 
you strip a Spaniard of his virtues, the re- 
siduum will be a Portuguese. This cruel state- 
ment is rather the result of prejudice than arising 
from any foundation in fact. It has a superficial 
cleverness which attracts some people, and espe- 
cially those who have but an imperfect knowledge 
of the true life and character of the people thus 
stigmatised. 

Lord Londonderry, in Chapter VI. of his Nar- 
rative of the Peninsular War, writes thus of the 
difference of character between the two nations: 
" Having halted at Blvas during the night, we 
marched next morning soon after dawn; and, 
passing through a plain of considerable extent, 
crossed the Guadiana at Badajoz, the capital of 

277 



278 Portuguese Life 

Estremadura. This movement introduced us at 
once into Spain; and the contrast, both in per- 
sonal appearance and in manners, between the 
people of the two nations, which was instantly 
presented to us, I shall not readily forget. Gen- 
erally speaking, the natives of frontier districts 
partake almost as much of the character of one 
nation as of another. . . . It is not so on the 
borders of Spain and Portugal. The peasant who 
cultivates his little field, or tends his flock on the 
right bank of the Guadiana, is, in all his habits 
and notions, a different being from the peasant 
who pursues similar occupations on its left bank ; 
the first is a genuine Portuguese, the last is a 
genuine Spaniard . . . They cordially de- 
test one another; insomuch that their common 
wrongs and their common enmity to the French 
were not sufficient, even at this time, to eradicate 
the feeling. 

1 ' It was not, however, by the striking diversity 
of private character alone which subsisted between 
them, that we were made sensible, as soon as we 
had passed the Guadiana, that a new nation was 
before us. The Spaniards received us with a de- 
gree of indifference to which we had not hitherto 
been accustomed. They were certainly not un- 
civil. . . . Whatever we required they gave 
us, in return for our money; but as to enthusiasm 
or a desire to anticipate our wants, there was not 
the shadow of an appearance of anything of the 
kind about them. How different all this from 



Land and People 279 

the poor Portuguese, who never failed to rend the 
air with their vivats, and were at all times full of 
promises and protestations, no matter how in- 
capable they might be of fulfilling the one or 
authenticating the other ! The truth is that the 
Spaniard is a proud, independent, and grave per- 
sonage; possessing many excellent qualities, but 
quite conscious of their existence, and not unapt 
to overrate them. . . . Yet with all this, there 
was much about the air and manner of the Span- 
iards to deserve and command our regard. The 
Portuguese are a people that require rousing; 
they are indolent, lazy, and generally helpless. 
We may value these our faithful allies, and render 
them useful ; but it is impossible highly to respect 
them. In the Spanish character, on the contrary, 
there is mixed up a great deal of haughtiness, a 
sort of manly independence of spirit, which you 
cannot but admire, even though aware that it will 
render them by many degrees less amenable to 
your wishes than their neighbours." 

With due allowance for time and circumstances, 
much in this passage might have been written to- 
day instead of nearly ninety years ago, and one 
cause of the difference in feeling is no doubt ex- 
plained truly enough. Perhaps some shallow 
persons are affected by the fact that in good looks 
the Portuguese are as a race inferior to the Span- 
iards. But there is no such real difference in 
character as to justify an impartial observer in 
using a phrase so essentially galling to England's 



280 Portuguese Life 

allies, of whom Napier said: " The bulk of the 
people were, however, staunch in their country's 
cause . . . ready at the call of honour, and sus- 
ceptible of discipline, without any loss of energy. ' ' 
Throughout the whole Iberian Peninsula the 
main axiom of life appears to be the same: 
' ' Never do to-day what you can put off to to- 
morrow." On the left bank of the Guadiana it is 
summarised by the word manana ; on the right 
bank the word used is amanha. There is only a 
phonetic distinction between the Spanish and the 
Portuguese idea. It is necessary for the traveller 
in these countries to keep this axiom well in 
mind, for it affords a clue to character and con- 
duct the value of which cannot be over-estimated, 
and not only to the character and conduct of in- 
dividuals, but to the whole national life of the 
inhabitants. In Portugal it permeates all public 
and municipal life, and appears to affect most 
especially that portion of the population who do 
not earn their living by manual labour. The 
higher one goes up the scale, the greater becomes 
the evidence of the ingrained habits of dilatori- 
ness and procrastination, and so any hard work 
on the part of the lower class of toilers cannot be 
properly directed, and the commerce and industry 
of the country either dwindle away together, or 
fall into the hands of more energetic and active 
foreigners, who naturally carry off the profits 
which should be properly applied to the welfare 
and prosperity of the Lusitanians. 



Land and People 281 

The mineral wealth and natural resources of the 
country are enormous, and it is really sad to con- 
template the little use that is made of the one or 
of the other unless developed by alien energy and 
worked by alien capital. As regards this latter 
important factor, the administrative corruption 
and the unsound state of the national finances 
render it difficult to find foreign capitalists who 
are able and willing to embark in the industrial 
enterprises, the successful issue of which affords 
the only chance for this most interesting nation 
to recover something of its ancient prosperity and 
to once more take a position in the world worthy 
of the land of the hardy sailors and valiant cap- 
tains who have left so imperishable a record over 
the earth's surface. 

The intellectual life of Portugal seems to have 
ceased with Camoens. It is rather pathetic the 
way in which the ordinary educated Portuguese 
refers back to the great poet and to the heroic 
period which he commemorated. No conversa- 
tion of any length can be carried on without a 
reference to Camoens and to Vasco da Gama. 
All history and all progress appear to have cul- 
minated and stopped then. Apparently nothing 
worthy of note has happened since. Camoens 
returned to L,isbon in 1569, and his great epic 
poem saw the light in 1572. He died in a public 
hospital in Lisbon in 1579 or 1580. In the latter 
year began the ' ' sixty years' captivity, ' ' when 
Portugal became merely a Spanish province; yet 



282 Portuguese Life 

there is no recollection of this — except the in- 
grained hatred of Spaniards and of everything 
Spanish — or of the shaking off the yoke in 1640, 
and of the battle of Amexial in 1663, where the 
English contingent bore the brunt of the battle, 
and the ' ' Portugueses, ' ' as they are called by the 
author of An Account of the Court of Portugal, 
published in 1700, claimed the principal part of 
the honour. The traces of the Peninsular War 
have faded away, and on the lines of Torres 
Vedras there is scarcely any tradition of the cause 
of their existence. In Lisbon, indeed, there is 
one incident of later date than Canioens, which is 
considered worthy of remembrance, — the great 
earthquake of 1755, — but this can scarcely be 
looked upon as a national achievement, or a 
matter of intellectual development. 

That Camoens is a fitting object for a nation's 
veneration cannot for a moment be doubted. The 
high encomium passed upon " the Student, the 
Soldier, the Traveller, the Patriot, the Poet, 
the mighty Man of Genius" by Burton, appears 
to be in no way exaggerated. The healthful in- 
fluence of his life and writings has done and is 
still doing good in his beloved country. But 
though the man who in his lifetime was neglected, 
and who was allowed to die in the depths of pov- 
erty and misery, is now the most honoured of his 
countrymen, and his rank as one of the world's 
great poets is universally acknowledged, his 
labours have been to a certain extent in vain. 



Land and People 283 

Not only industry, but culture, literature, and 
art appear to be infested with the mildew of de- 
cay. There is a good university at Coimbra, 
where alone, it is said, the language is spoken 
correctly. There is an excellent system of ele- 
mentary and secondary schools, but in practice it 
is incomplete and subject to many abuses, like 
most public institutions in the country. The 
irregularities of the language, without authorita- 
tive spelling or pronunciation, and the best dic- 
tionary of which is Brazilian, have a bad effect 
upon the literature of the country. 

The language, more purely Latin in its base 
than either of the other Latin tongues, with an 
admixture of Moorish, and strengthend by the 
admission of many words of foreign origin, intro- 
duced during the period of great commercial pros- 
perity, possesses ample means for the expression 
of ideas and of shades of thought, and though it 
loses somewhat of the musical quality of the other 
languages in consequence of a rather large per- 
centage of the nasal tones which are peculiar to 
it, yet it will hold its own well with the remain- 
ing members of the group. 

Whatever the cause, however, there is hardly 
any general literature; almost the only books 
(not professional or technical) which are pub- 
lished, appear to be translations of French nov- 
els — not of the highest class. Perhaps in the 
study of archaeology and folklore is to be found 
the most cultured phase of Portuguese intelli- 



284 Portuguese Life 

gence. The Archaeological Society of Lisbon 
strives to do good work, and has a museum with 
interesting relics in the old church of the Carmo, 
itself one of the most interesting and graceful 
ruins left out of the havoc caused by the great 
earthquake. 

As might be expected under such circumstances, 
the newspapers are, with few exceptions, of the 
" rag " variety. Conducted for the most part by 
clever young fellows fresh from Coimbra, they are 
violent in their views and incorrect in their news, 
especially with regard to foreign intelligence. 
They have some influence, no doubt, but not so 
much as the same type of newspaper in France. 
The habitual want of veracity of the Portuguese 
character is naturally emphasised in the news- 
papers, and no one in his senses would believe any 
statement made in them. 

A sure sign of the decadence of intellectual life, 
as well as of commercial activity, is to be found in 
the postal service, with its antiquated methods 
and imperfect arrangements. It is administered 
in a happy-go-lucky manner, which amuses at the 
same time that it annoys. Truly, with the post- 
office, it is well constantly to repeat to one's self 
the phrase: " Patience! all will be well to- 
morrow! " Probably it won't be well; but none 
but a foolish Englishman or Frenchman or Ger- 
man will bother about such a little matter. 

A kindly, brave, docile, dishonest, patient, and 
courteous people, who, to quote Napier " retain a 



Land and People 285 



sense of injury or insult with incredible tenac- 
ity; " and a due observance of their customs and 
proper politeness are so readily met, and friendly 
advances are so freely proffered, that a sojourn 
amongst them is pleasant enough. I have won- 
dered that the tourist has not found his way more 
into this smiling land, though, no doubt, his 
absence is a matter of congratulation to the travel- 
ler in these regions. The country has many 
beauties, the people and their costumes are pict- 
uresque, and the cost of living — even allowing 
for a considerable percentage of cheating — is not 
excessive. There is, I suppose, a want of the 
ordinary attractions for the pure tourist or globe- 
trotter. There are churches, monuments, and 
objects of interest in goodly numbers, and there 
is beautiful scenery in great variety ; but the true 
attraction to a thoughtful visitor lies in the con- 
templation of the people themselves. 

The Portuguese, taken as a whole, are not a 
good-looking race. The women, who, as a rule, 
are very pretty as little girls, lose their good looks 
as they grow up, and are disappointing when 
compared with the Spaniards. Sometimes one 
comes across fish- or market-women of consider- 
able comeliness, w T hich, when conjoined to the 
graceful figure and poise induced by the habitual 
carriage of heavy weights on the head and the 
absence of shoes, makes a striking picture. The 
costume is attractive, and the wealth of golden ear- 
rings, charms, chains, and such like, in which these 



286 Portuguese Life 

women invest their savings, does not somehow 
seem anomalous or incongruous, though shown 
on a background of dirty and ragged clothing. 

One unfortunate peculiarity that cannot help 
being noticed is the number of persons whose eyes 
are not on the same level. When this does not 
amount to an actual disfigurement, it is still a 
blemish which prevents many a young girl from 
being classed as a beauty. This and the peculiar 
notched or cleft teeth seem to point to an heredi- 
tary taint. Also unmistakable signs of a greater 
or lesser admixture of black blood are numerous. 
As a rule, the Portuguese are dark-complexioned, 
with large dark eyes and black hair; but, of 
course, one meets many exceptions. The men 
of the working class are fond of wearing enor- 
mous bushy whiskers, and women of all classes 
are accustomed to wear moustachios. The thin 
line of softest down which accentuates the ripe 
lips of the senhorina of some seventeen sum- 
mers becomes an unattractive incident in the 
broad countenance of the stout lady of advancing 
years; and when, as sometimes happens, the 
hirsute appendages take the form of a thin, 
straggling beard, with a tooth-brush moustache, 
it can only be described as an unmitigated horror. 

Society in Portugal is very mixed. There are 
the o\&fidalgos y haughty and unapproachable, and 
often very poor, the descendants of the nobles 
whose duplicity, ability in intrigue, and want of 
patriotism are so often alluded to in the pages of 



Land and People 287 

Napier. Then there are the new nobility, the 
" titled Brasileros, ' ' as Galenga calls them, who 
have come back from Brazil to their native land 
with large fortunes acquired somehow, and who 
practically buy titles, as well as lands and houses. 
Wealthy tradesmen, also, hold a special position 
in the mixed middle class. There is, too, a 
curious blending of old-fashioned courtesy with 
democratic sentiments. The tradesman welcomes 
his customers with effusive politeness — shakes 
hands as he invites them to sit down, and chats 
with these perhaps titled ladies without any affec- 
tation or assumption. After a while the parties 
turn to business. A sort of Oriental bargaining 
takes place, the seller asking twice as much as 
the object is worth and he intends to take. The 
purchaser meets this with an offer of about half 
what she intends to give. With the utmost polite- 
ness and civility the negotiations are conducted 
on either side. Each gives way little by little, 
and in the end a bargain is struck. The amounts 
involved appear to be enormous, as the rets are 
computed by thousands and hundreds; but, then, 
the real is only worth about the thousandth part 
of three shillings and twopence at the present 
rate of exchange, and the long and exciting 
transaction, in all its various phases, has resulted 
in one or other of the parties having scored or 
missed a small victory. Verily, even to the loser, 
the pleasure is cheap at the price. 
The Brazilian element is most conspicuous in 



288 Portuguese Life 

Lisbon, and partly in consequence that city is 
only a little modern capital, somewhat feebly 
imitating Paris in certain ways, and, conse- 
quently, lacking the individuality and interest of 
Oporto. Yet Lisbon has a charm of its own; and 
the beauties of the Aveneida, the Roscio (known 
to the English as the " Rolling Motion Square," 
from its curious pattern of black and white pave- 
ment), the Black Horse Square, the broad and 
beautiful Tagus, the hills whereon the city is 
built, and the lovely gardens with their sub- 
tropical vegetation, will repay a stay of some 
weeks' duration. 

Outside the mercantile element, there is con- 
siderable difficulty for a stranger to formulate the 
boundaries of other social strata. It would ap- 
pear that the professions are in an indifferent 
position. Lawyers, of course, as in most other 
countries, are looked upon as rogues. How far 
this is the effect of the general prejudice, or 
whether it has any special foundation in fact, it 
would be hard to say. No doubt there are up- 
right men amongst them, as in every other walk 
of life. There is a general idea that the medical 
training is lax, and the doctors, as a rule, are not 
highly considered. It is admitted, however, that 
they are as devoted, and as ready to risk their 
own lives, as those of other countries, a fact which 
was fully proved by several of the doctors at 
Oporto and Lisbon on the occasion of the out- 
break of the plague in 1899. 



Land and People 289 

The system of fees in general use tends to dam- 
age the position of both lawyers and doctors. In 
reply to the question as to his indebtedness, the 
client or the patient is told: " What you please." 
This sounds courteous, but is, in effect, embar- 
rassing, as it is hard to estimate what is a fair 
fee under the circumstances, and generally one or 
the other of the parties is dissatisfied, and a sore 
feeling is left behind. 

There are several orders of knighthood, which 
are showered about on occasion. The reasons for 
giving them are various. For instance, a Court 
tradesman may receive a decoration in lieu of im- 
mediate payment of a long-standing bill. The 
ribbons and buttons are not worn so freely as else- 
where on the Continent. The polite style in 
addressing a stranger is in the third person, and 
such titles as Your Excellency, Your Lordship, 
and Your Worship, sometimes enlarged with the 
adjective illustrissimo (most illustrious), are com- 
mon enough. When an Englishman is first ad- 
dressed as Vossa Illustrissimo, Excellencia (Your 
Most Illustrious Excellency), he begins to feel as 
if he were playing a part in one of Gilbert and 
Sullivan's comic operas. He soon gets used to it, 
however, and accepts the superlatives without 
turning a hair. 

Of all classes it may be said that their manners 
are, on the whole, good, and their morals gener- 
ally lax. Cleanliness has no special place assigned 

to it amongst the virtues. If it comes next to 
19 



290 Portuguese Life 

» 

godliness, then the latter must be very low down 
the scale. It seems incredible, but verminous 
heads are to be found in the ranks of well-to-do 
tradespeople. Fleas and bugs abound, and happy 
is he whose skin is too tough, or whose flesh is 
too sour, to attract these ferocious insects. There 
is not much laxur) 7- and there is a fair amount of 
thrift, while frugality of living is common, espe- 
cially among the populace. 

One great characteristic is the intense love of 
children which is exhibited by all classes, and 
there is no surer way to the good will of a native 
than a kindness, however slight, to a child in 
whom he or she is interested. As is natural 
under such circumstances, the children are shock- 
ingly indulged and spoilt, with all the resultant 
unpleasant and evil consequences. Cats, also, 
are great favourites with the Portuguese, and the 
thousands of shabby animals of Lisbon and Oporto 
show no sign of fear if a stranger stops to stroke 
them. They are accustomed to kind treatment, 
and look upon all human beings as friends. 

As a rule, a rather large number of servants are 
employed. They are poorly paid, and in many 
households indifferently fed and housed. Often 
they are dirty, lazy, dishonest sluts. They chat- 
ter shrilly with the master or mistress, answer and 
argue when told of any shortcoming, and are 
always ready to go off at a moment's notice. But 
they are often capable of devoted service, and of 
a sincere desire to be obliging, and may always 



Land and People 291 



be counted on to exhibit the utmost kindness to 
the children of the house. Their written refer- 
ences, as a rule, are frauds. If you ask for the 
boas refe?'e?icias (good references), so often men- 
tioned in the advertisements of criadas (female 
servants), you will probably find that, even if 
genuine, they are antiquated, and that they leave 
many gaps betw T een the various periods of service 
which can only be filled up by conjecture. Cria- 
das are not, as a rule, of immaculate virtue, and 
give some trouble by their desire to go to f est as 
and to servants' balls. The male servants are, as 
a rule, better than the criadas. Servants are 
somewhat roughly treated, and are ordered about 
as if they were dogs. It is always said that they 
do not understand or appreciate milder or more 
civil treatment, and are inclined to despise a mas- 
ter or mistress who uses the Portuguese equivalent 
to ' ' please, ' ' or who acknowledges a service with 
thanks. I am inclined to doubt this, both from 
my personal observation and from a casual remark 
made to me by the landlady of a hotel at Cintra, 
that her waiters and servants much preferred 
English to native visitors, because of the greater 
politeness and consideration shown to them by 
the former. Of course, as in all other countries, 
servants are described as one of the greatest 
plagues in life; but this must be taken for what 
it is worth. And what would the ladies do with- 
out such a subject to grumble about ? 

Portugal is a poor country, despite its natural 



292 Portuguese Life 

resources. The wealthy people are few, and con- 
sist mainly of returned Brazilians. It cannot be 
said, either, that the classes in the enjoyment of 
a competence constitute a fair average of the com- 
munity. But the poor are very abundant. Wages 
are terribly low, even a foreman in an engineering 
shop getting only a milrei a day, averaging 35. 
2d. in English money. On the other hand, it must 
be remembered that in such a climate the ' ' liv- 
ing wage " is necessarily lower than in England. 
Many necessities in England are superfluities or 
even inconveniences under sunnier skies. The 
people, too, are very frugal, and even in towns, 
though rents be high, all other necessaries are 
moderate in price. The standard of life is not 
high, and the people are contented with a style 
of living which would be indignantly rejected by 
English labourers. 

The artisans are not good workmen, but plod on 
fairly well, and, with the exception of festas, re- 
quire few holidays. They prefer to work on Sun- 
days, and grumble at their English employers, 
who generally split the difference, by closing their 
shops for half a day. They look upon this as a 
grievance, however much they may be assured 
that it makes no difference in their wages. 

A very hard-working class of men are the Gal- 
legos, the natives of Galicia, who are nearly as 
numerous in Lisbon as they were when Napier 
wrote, and where, then as now, they act as porters, 
messengers, scavengers, and water-carriers, and 



Land and People 293 

are found in all sorts of lowly and laborious occu- 
pations. As porters and messengers, they have 
an excellent reputation for honesty, and for 
being most civil and obliging. Gallenga, a fairly 
shrewd observer, considers that the employment 
of these Spaniards has deplorable effects on the 
character of the Portuguese nation. I cannot go 
all the way with him in the gloomy view he takes 
of it, but it must be conceded that the existence 
of such a body of aliens (estimated at twelve 
thousand in Lisbon alone) working hard and 
well at occupations which the Portuguese will 
not do at all, or, if they attempt them, will do in- 
differently ; herding together some ten or twelve 
in a small room, living on maize bread and a clove 
of garlic washed down with water; accepting 
thankfully a very attenuated hire, and yet con- 
triving to send substantial savings back to Ga- 
licia, — must considerably affect the labour market 
and tend to keep wages low. They also close 
certain forms of labour to the native worker, 
and cause these industries to be looked on with 
contempt. 

In towns like Lisbon and Oporto a great number 
of persons are employed in the fish trade. The 
fish-girls, with their distinctive costumes, their 
bare feet, and the graceful poise of the heavy 
basket of fish on their heads, are a very charac- 
teristic feature of both towns. The costumes dif- 
fer in the two cities, mainly in the head-gear, but 
they are both picturesque and dirty, and emit the 



294 Portuguese Life 

same "ancient and fish-like smell." The men, 
too, with their bare legs and feet, balancing a long 
pole on the shoulder, with a basket of fish at each 
end, will cover a marvellous amount of ground 
in a day at the curious trotting pace which they 
affect. Miles inland these men will carry their 
finny wares, stopping at the public water-supplies 
to moisten the cloth which protects the fish from 
the sun and dust. These may or may not be fresh 
when the day's work is nearly done, but house- 
wives purchasing a supply in the afternoon had 
better keep a very sharp look-out. 

Fish plays an important part in the domestic 
economy of dwellers within a reasonable distance 
of the sea, and forms a considerable item in the 
food-stuffs of the working classes. It is fairly 
cheap, and is cooked so as to get the full value of 
it. More important than the fresh fish is the 
salted cod {bacalhao). This, which Napier de- 
scribed as " the ordinary food of the Portuguese," 
is the backbone of the worker's menu. It is not 
fragrant, nor is it inviting in aspect in its raw 
state, but it is said to be highly nutritive, and it 
can certainly be cooked in ways which make it 
appetising. The midday meal, which the wife 
brings to her husband at his work, and shares 
with him as they sit in the shade, is often com- 
posed of a caldo (soup) made of bacalhao \ or of all 
sorts of oddments, thickened with beans and 
flavoured with garlic, accompanied by a bit of 
rye-bread or of broa, the bread made from maize. 



Land and People 295 

These soups and breads, accompanied by salads, 
onions, tomatoes, and other vegetables, washed 
down with draughts of a light red table-wine of 
little alcoholic strength, form the not unwhole- 
some average diet of the worker with his hands. 
If he wants to get drunk, he can do so, with some 
difficulty, by imbibing sufficient wine, but the 
easiest method is to drink the fearful crude spirit 
aguardente. If he survive, he gets horribly, 
brutally drunk, and possibly does some mischief 
before he recovers. But it is only fair to say that he 
but rarely gets drunk, and that when he is thirsty 
he quenches his thirst with water, with a harm- 
less decoction of herbs or lemonade, or with the 
almost innocuous wine. This sobriety is not the 
result of any temperance legislation or restrictions. 
No license is required for opening a shop for the 
sale of liquor. Only revenue dues and octroi 
duties have to be paid, and, of course, there is a 
liability to police supervision, which provides the 
police with a means of increasing their very in- 
adequate pay by bribes or blackmail. 

The amusements of the workman in the town 
are few enough, and mostly of a domestic charac- 
ter. He sits on his doorstep, or on a bench in 
the nearest gardens. He smokes the eternal 
cigarette, gossips with his neighbours, plays with 
his children, and pets the cat. His only real 
playtimes are the fes fas, when for some hours he 
indulges in revelry — if, indeed, it be worthy of 
such a title. He reads the newspaper but little, 



296 Portuguese Life 

— if he can read at all, — which is, perhaps, a good 
thing for him, and he is generally a Republican. 
This Republicanism is mostly academic, but the 
"red" type is not wanting, and a fiery spirit 
might be roused at any time, with consequences 
that cannot be foreseen. Of course, the younger 
men tinkle the guitar, and make love more or less 
openly to the girls. When age overtakes a man 
or misfortune overpowers him, there is no poor 
law to take him in charge, but there are extensive 
and well-organised charities in every centre which 
are eager and willing to assist those who are tem- 
porarily afflicted, and to afford sustenance — a bare 
sustenance, perhaps — to those who are perma- 
nently disabled. 

The amusements of the town — the theatre, the 
concert, and the opera — do not affect the work- 
man much; his budget does not allow of such 
indulgence, except on the occasion of a free per- 
formance. Though they are fairly musical and 
love the theatre, the Portuguese have no really 
aesthetic side to their character. There is a queer 
song and dance, topical and rather broad, the 
chula, the somewhat monotonous refrain of which 
is to be heard everywhere and at all hours, and 
from all manners of lips. The washerwomen 
kneeling by the brook bang the unfortunate 
clothes on the flat stones in rhythm with the tune, 
and beguile the time with the interminable song. 
It arises in unexpected places, and is a fairly sure 
item in the gathering of the younger folk, both in 



Land and People 



297 



towns and villages, in the cool of the evening. 
Concerts and theatres are fairly patronised by the 
more moneyed classes, but the performances are 
not, as a rule, of a very high calibre. There is a 
subsidised theatre at I^isbon, but it does little to 
elevate the dramatic art elsewhere. 




CHAPTER XIX 



PORTUGUESE INSTITUTIONS 



THE Portuguese army is raised by conscrip- 
tion, each parish, according to size, having 
to contribute an annual quota of young men 
between twenty and twenty-one years of age. 
These have to serve three consecutive years with 
the colours, and then pass into the reserve for 
another ten years. During the latter period no 
conscript can leave the country without a passport. 
In time of peace the army is supposed to number 
about thirty thousand men, and on the war foot- 
ing should consist of about one hundred and 
twenty thousand men and two hundred and sixty- 
four guns. The men, who in summer wear brown 
holland clothes, look hardy enough, and, accord- 
ing to ordinary report, are worthy of the plucky 
caf adores of the Peninsular War, who, according 
to Napier, made most excellent soldiers when 
properly led. It is still said of the Portuguese 
soldier that with three beans in his pocket he can 
march and fight for a week without making any 
further demands upon the commissariat depart- 
ment. This military service does not affect the 

298 



Portuguese Institutions 299 

nation much, either morally or physically, and 
the only economical effect is probably that it 
provides a fruitful source of plunder to corrupt 
officials. As any man can free himself of the 
three years' service with the colours by paying a 
sum of about ,£24, it may be imagined what an 
opening this affords for special peculation. 

The navy consists of about five thousand men, 
and of a few modern w T ar-ships, and of some old 
boats whose seaworthiness is questionable. The 
best ship at present on the list is the cruiser Dom 
Carlos, which was sent to take part in the naval 
pageant which formed the first portion of the 
funeral of Queen Victoria. The sailors, who are 
much to be seen in Lisbon, where the great naval 
barracks are situated, look smart enough, and as 
the Portuguese have always been good sailors, it 
may safely be predicted that, in case of necessity, 
they w T ill make the most of the limited means at 
their disposal, or of such of them as have not 
been utterly ruined by official indifference or 
worse. 

In the towns one meets men in various employ- 
ments, such as the police, who have served in the 
army, and still retain some sort of soldierly ap- 
pearance, but once get into the country, and it is 
vain to look for any evidence of military service 
amongst the rural population. 

The country-folk are a patient lot; most of 
them ruminants, like their own oxen. Sleepy 
always, and slow in their movements, they are 



300 Portuguese Life 

often devoted to the farm, or qninta, on which 
they work, and are, perhaps, slightly more honest 
than their fellows in the towns. They are frugal 
enough, and enjoy their huge junks of dark 
bread, washed down with water, at their midday 
meal, and a sound sleep under the shade of an 
orange tree or a eucalyptus, or a bit of a wall, 
until it is necessary to begin work again. The 
peasant costumes are not inviting; they are simply 
squalid. Costumes in the towns are much better. 
Still, on festal days the village women deck them- 
selves out with bright-hued shawls, and the men 
wind brighter scarfs round their waists to keep 
up their patchwork trousers, and thus relieve 
what would otherwise be the intolerable dinginess 
of the whole scene. The farmer himself, mounted 
on his mule, with high-peaked saddle and enor- 
mous wooden stirrups decorated with brass, his 
cloak, with the bright scarlet or blue lining folded 
outwards, strapped on in front, with his short 
jacket and broad-brimmed hat, offers a smart and 
typical figure. 

In town or country, the beautiful oxen are 
worthy of admiration. They are the most satis- 
factory of all the rural animals. Horses, shabby 
and attenuated, little sheep of a colour from black 
to dirty grey, showing affinity to goats, and hav- 
ing neither the grace of the latter nor the sleepy 
comeliness of our own sheep, black and white 
cows whose points would not be much thought of 
by judges at an agricultural show, goats of all 



Portuguese Institutions 301 

sorts of breeds, and finally pigs of a most lanky 
and uninviting appearance, form the stock of the 
farms. Heaps of chickens of all sorts run about 
everywhere, and enjoy fine dust-baths by the side 
of the road. 

The aspect of the county varies much between 
north and south. In the former, one sees real 
grass and hedges, and the bright flowers that are 
common everywhere look all the better for their 
green background. The commonest hedge in the 
south, and occasionally in the north, is made of a 
few layers of stones loosely laid together with 
a row of aloe plants on the top. These grow 
formidable in time, with huge sharp-pointed 
leaves, and they present a curious appearance 
when at intervals in such a row plants send up 
their huge flowering stems from nine to twelve 
feet high, looking at a little distance like tele- 
graph poles. 

Despite the squalid clothes of the peasants, 
there are many picturesque aspects of rural life. 
The driving of large herds of cattle by mounted 
men, armed with long goads, is an interesting as 
well as an artistic sight, and the same may be said 
of the primitive agricultural occupations. The 
crops are harvested with a sickle, and you may 
wake up some morning to see the field opposite 
your house invaded by some twenty to thirty 
reapers, men and women, boys and girls, patiently 
sawing their way through the wheat or barley, or 
whatever it is. The corn is threshed out with the 



302 Portuguese Life 

flail, or trodden out by the oxen — all operations 
fair to look upon. Forms of cultivation interest- 
ing to watch are the very primitive ploughing, 
the hoeing of the maize, and all those connected 
with the culture of the vines and the orange and 
other fruit trees, and especially the irrigation, 
which is so important to these latter. In fact, 
one of the most charming of rural sights is the 
old water-wheel, groaning and creaking as it is 
turned by the patient ox or mule or pony, splash- 
ing the cool water from the well out of its earthen 
pots — each with a hole in the bottom — and dis- 
charging it into the trough leading to the irriga- 
tion channels or to the reservoir from which the 
water may afterwards be let off in the required 
direction. 

But agriculture is not always so backward and 
primitive. There are great landowners and large 
farmers who use the newest and best agricultural 
implements. The Government does what it can 
to encourage the use of artificial manures, and 
there are societies which render important services 
to agriculturists and to fruit-growers. Amid such 
labours live the quiet country-folk. They have 
no thought of anything; they have no special 
amusements beyond an occasional festa and a 
dance. They sit round the village well in the 
evening, and when not talking scandal, tell .stories 
about — " Once upon a time there was a poor 
widow with one or more daughters, " or ' ' There 
was once a king's son" — often a Moorish king. 



Portuguese Institutions 303 

The old well-known tales reappear, modified to 
the Portuguese character and morality. 

The following is a story taken from Braga's 
excellent book: " There was, once upon a time, 
a poor widow that had only one daughter. This 
girl, going out to bathe in the river with her com- 
panions on St. John's eve, at the advice of one of 
her friends, placed her ear-rings on the top of a 
stone, lest she should lose them in the water. 
While she was playing about in the river an old 
man passed along, who, seeing the ear-rings, took 
them and placed them in a leather bag he was 
carrying. The poor child was much grieved at 
this, and ran after the old man, w r ho consented to 
restore her belongings if she would search for 
them inside his sack. This the girl did, and 
forthwith the artful old man closed the mouth of 
the bag and carried her off therein. He subse- 
quently told her that she must help him to gain 
a living, and that whenever he recited — 

' Sing, sack, 
Else thou wilt be beaten with a stick ! ' 

she was to sing lustily. Wherever they came he 
placed his sack on the ground, and addressed the 
above formula to it, when the poor girl sang as 
loud as she could : 

' I am placed in this sack, 
Where my life I shall lose, 
For love of my ear-rings, 
Which I left in the stream.' 



304 Portuguese Life 

The old man obtained much money from the audi- 
ences attracted by his singing leather bag. The 
authorities of one town, however, became sus- 
picious, and, examining the sack while its owner 
was asleep, found and released the child. They 
filled up the bag with all the filth they could pick 
up, and left it where they had found it. The 
little girl was sent back to her mother. When 
the old man woke next morning, and took out the 
sack to earn his breakfast, the usual incantation 
had no effect, and when he applied the threatened 
stick the bag burst, and all the filth came out, 
which he was compelled to lick up by the enraged 
populace. ' ' At the close of the story the cigarettes 
glow, the white teeth gleam, the bushy whiskers 
wag, the old women chuckle, the girls giggle, and 
the youths snigger, and as the short twilight is 
now over, the group breaks up, and each vanishes 
into his or her own vermin-pasture to sleep until 
amanha has actually become to-day, and the sun 
shines on another exact repetition of yesterday. 

The Portuguese are superstitious, and are de- 
vout up to a certain point, and the clerics are 
exceedingly intolerant. In the morning one 
sees, as in all Roman Catholic countries, devout 
worshippers kneeling about in the churches before 
their favourite shrines, but, unlike the practice of 
most Roman Catholic countries, the churches are 
closed at or about noon for the most part, and are 
only open for special masses after that time. The 
procession of the Host is greeted with most 



Portuguese Institutions 305 

extreme reverence, and whether it be in the fash- 
ionable Chiado at Lisbon or along a country lane, 
all uncover and make the sign of the cross, and 
many, even fashionably dressed ladies and gentle- 
men, kneel down and bow themselves humbly as 
the sacred wafer passes by, borne by the gorgeously 
vested priest ; at least, in the cities the vestments 
are gorgeous, and a long train of acolytes and 
attendants makes the procession imposing, but in 
the country the vestments are often mildewed 
and decayed, and the one or two rustic attendants 
are not dignified in appearance. Still, the sacred 
symbol is the same, and the reverence and the 
devotion are the same. 

There is an excessive hierarchy for the size of 
the country, there being in Portugal proper three 
ecclesiastical provinces, ruled respectively by the 
Patriarch of Lisbon and by the Archbishops of 
Braga and Kvora. Besides these, there is the 
colonial province which is ruled by the Arch- 
bishop of Goa. Archpriests and other dignitaries 
abound, so that a priest has something to look 
forward to in the way of promotion ; and yet, as a 
rule, the priests perform their duties without zeal 
and in a slovenly manner. One often hears it 
said that their behaviour and their morality leave 
much to be desired. There are among them 
gentlemen of blameless life and even of ascetic 
practices, but it is commonly reported that, as a 
whole, they are of inferior birth and education. 
It is not easy for a stranger to form any opinion 



306 Portuguese Life 

on these points, but it must be conceded that 
their appearance is generally suggestive of the 
truth of the statement, and it may be admitted 
that there is an undue proportion of ignoble and 
sensuous faces amongst them. 

Funerals are occasions of great pomp, and are 
often picturesque enough, while the masses for 
the dead at intervals after and on the anniversary 
are, no doubt, profitable to the Church. By at- 
tending these one has a good opportunity of 
testifying to the esteem in which the deceased was 
held, or to one's good will towards the family or 
representatives. These masses are generally ad- 
vertised in the papers, with thanks to those 
friends who have attended funeral masses. As 
there is scarcely any intellectual activity in Portu- 
gal, there is practically no religious thought. A 
dull acquiescence in the dictates of the Church 
may be crossed by an occasional gleam of rebellion 
against sacerdotalism, roused by some temporary 
stirring up of the hatred felt against the Jesuits. 
But it in no way alters the habitual attitude of the 
people towards religion and its outward mani- 
festations. One thing is certain, and that is that 
in town or country a man or a woman must be in 
the lowest depths of poverty and distress to refuse 
to throw a few rets into the bags of the licensed 
mendicants who, bareheaded, and clad in scarlet 
or white gowns, go round soliciting alms for the 
support of the churches on whose behalf they are 
sent out. 



Portuguese Institutions 307 

As is customary in most countries, the women 
are more amenable to religious influences than the 
men, and are more under the dominion of the 
priest. This is not likely to be altered yet awhile, 
for, under the present system of education and 
bringing up, the female portion of the community 
is not only not intellectual, but may even be de- 
scribed as being unintelligent. They are slovenly, 
and cannot be described as good housewives. 
They are pleasure-loving and garrulous, though 
this latter trait is not, I suppose, a specially 
national characteristic. They do much hard 
work, especially in the fields. In the classes 
above (if above be the proper word) the* hand- 
workers, the young girls are still kept very 
strictly, and are not allowed to go out alone. 
Their knowledge of life is limited to the view 
from the windows of their homes, where they 
may be seen looking out on the street scenes 
below whenever the shade allows them to stand 
at the window or on the balcony. No ' ' new 
woman ' ' movement of any importance has yet 
taken place, and though there are modifications 
in woman's position in the national life, it is 
probable that it will take one if not more genera- 
tions before women in Portugal achieve the eman- 
cipation which their sisters have attained in more 
progressive countries. 

In one circumstance, however, woman does 
take her place by the side of man, and that is in 
the bull-ring — not, indeed, in the arena, but in 



308 Portuguese Life 

every part of the amphitheatre, from the worst 
seats on the sunny side to the costly boxes in the 
shade. She takes as great an interest in the bull- 
fight as the man, and if she does not shout and 
swear, or fling her hat into the ring in her enthu- 
siasm, she delights probably more than the man in 
the beauty of the spectacle, and appreciates almost 
as fully the feats of skill and daring which give 
such special attraction to the national pastime. 
This is a right royal sport, and as in Portugal the 
horrid cruelty which defaces it in Spain is absent, 
there is no overwhelming reason why the women 
should not sit and applaud the picturesque scene 
and the exhibitions of pluck and agility shown by 
the performers. 

The scene is really magnificent, and the en- 
thusiasm of the audience must be witnessed in 
order to understand the underlying potentialities 
of the Portuguese character. The vile abuse of a 
bull who will not show fight is comical to listen 
to. Probably, in such a case, the bull has been 
through it all before, and he does not care to 
make wild rushes at cloaks which have nothing 
substantial behind them. So he paws up the 
sand and looks theatrical, but refuses to budge. 
Then a nimble bandarilhero faces him, and fixes a 
pair of bandarilhas in his neck — one on each side 
if he can manage it. This is unpleasant, no 
doubt, but the bull's former experience tells him 
that it is not serious, and not even very painful 
It was irritating the first time, but no well-bred 



Portuguese Institutions 3°9 

bull should condescend to be upset by such a 
trifle. Another pair of bandarilhas, and yet 
another, are fixed into his shoulders by their 
barbed points — or the attempt is made to fix 
them. Then the bull begins to play the game in 
a condescending sort of way. Then the great 
man, the espada himself, comes on the scene, and 
arranges and waves his scarlet flag, and walks up 
to the obstinate animal, perhaps flicks him in the 
nostrils with his pocket-handkerchief and calls 
him vacca (cow) ! At last, seemingly out of good 
nature, the bull rushes at the red flag, has the 
highly decorated dart stuck between his shoulders, 
by the daring espada who may perform some other 
feat, listens to the applause, and laughs to himself 
when he hears the bugle-call and sees the trained 
oxen rush in with their long bells and their at- 
tendant herdsmen, and with more or less of a 
frolicsome air he trots out of the arena in their com- 
pany and, having had his sore shoulders attended 
to, and having had a good feed, chews the cud 
with a pleasant reminiscence of the afternoon's 
work. It is a mistake not to kill the bull, which 
is not cruel in itself, but which would prevent 
some rather tiresome interludes when a knowing 
old bull refuses to be coaxed into playing his part 
of the game. 

Far different, however, is the scene when a 
really spirited bull comes in with a rush and 
charges wildly at the brightly attired performers, 
and makes them skip over the barrier, often 



3 io Portuguese Life 

leaving their cloaks behind them. Sometimes 
the bull skips over too, and then there is a most 
amusing scene, as performers, attendants, and all 
vault back over the barrier into the ring itself. 
When the espada finally performs his courageous 
feat under such conditions, he obtains such an 
ovation as his skill deserves. Hats of all sorts 
and shapes are cast to him in the arena, which 
he has to pick up and throw or hand back to the 
admirers who testify their satisfaction in this 
curious manner. Cigars, also, are thrown at the 
successful bull-fighter's feet, and these he keeps. 
The most famous espadas are all Spaniards, and 
they all wear the traditional dress of their calling. 
If, on the one hand, there is not the thrill of the 
actual killing of the bull, on the other there are 
no miserable old horses to be ripped up, and no 
smell of blood. Next to the actual bull-fights 
come the selections of the young bulls from the 
herds, when the members of the Tauromachian 
Societies exhibit their skill, and where many a 
gay young fellow gets much knocked about in 
exhibiting his agility or the want of it. 

Other sports cannot be said to have any marked 
existence. Dancing is a national amusement, 
and a few of the Anglicised Portuguese go in for 
cricket and lawn-tennis. Cycling, though not 
unknown, is far from common, the roads being, 
as a rule, much too bad for comfortable or even 
for safe riding. 

IyOcal and provincial government leaves much 



Portuguese Institutions 311 

to be desired in Portugal. The keeping up of the 
roads is inconceivably bad. A royal road (estrada 
real) is generally the worst of all, and, with such 
an example before them, it is not to be wondered 
at that local authorities neglect their duties in 
this matter. 

11 No capital city in Europe suffers so much as 
Lisbon from the want of good police regulations." 
This quotation from Napier might very well be 
written to-day, and extended to include all Por- 
tuguese towns. Perhaps it is fair to say that it is 
not so much the regulations that are at fault as 
the incompetence and indifference of each local 
authority, which irresistibly suggest that corrup- 
tion alone can account for such a mass of evil. 
The administrative machine is elaborate, and 
ought to be more effective. First, there is the 
district, ruled by the Civil Governor, an officer 
somewhat resembling a French prefect, with its 
corporate body known as the District Commis- 
sion. There are seventeen districts, which are 
subdivided into two hundred and sixty-two com- 
munes. The head of a commune is the Admin- 
istrator, and the corporation is known as the 
Municipal Chamber. The last subdivision is that 
of the communes into parishes, of which there 
are three thousand seven hundred and thirty-five. 
Each of these has as its head an officer called a 
regedor, and occupies the" attention of a junta de 
parochia y or parish council. 

The scavenging, sanitation, watering, paving, 



312 Portuguese Life 

and all the other works which fall within the 
sphere of the municipality or local authority are 
defective and neglected. The one bright point, 
both in Oporto and Lisbon, is the care, skill, and 
attention with which the public gardens and 
squares are tended. The palms, tree-ferns, cacti, 
and other semi-tropical and sub-tropical plants 
are beautiful in themselves, and are arranged and 
intermingled with other trees and shrubs in a 
most artistic manner. The grass (upon which no 
one, of course, may walk) is kept green by con- 
stant watering, and affords a delightful contrast 
to the generally dry and dusty aspect of the city. 
Another organisation which is generally efficient 
and well conducted is that of the fire brigades. 
The municipal firemen — the bombeiros — are often 
stimulated by a healthy rivalry with the volun- 
teer brigades, which are numerous, well found, 
and, as a rule, well managed. The latter are 
often centres of good charitable work outside 
their actual fire service, and they are valuable 
as offering a fair and worthy opportunity for the 
display of sound public spirit and good feeling. 

Though Portuguese laws are, as a rule, admi- 
rable in themselves, the administration thereof is 
bad in the extreme, and the judiciary have a 
reputation for turpitude remarkable even amongst 
the recognised corruption of all officials. In Por- 
tugal proper there are two judicial districts — that 
of Lisbon and that of Oporto. Bach has a high 
court known as a Relagao, and there are inferior 



Portuguese Institutions 313 

courts of various styles and titles. Above all is 
the Supreme Tribunal of Justice at Lisbon, which 
is the final court of appeal, and the reputation of 
which is somewhat better than that of any other 
tribunal. The administration of criminal justice 
is naturally amongst the worst. According to 
common repute, the only consideration with the 
judges is how they are to get the costs paid — 
whether they are more likely to obtain them 
through an acquittal, which throws them on the 
prosecutor, or by a conviction. Also, it is gener- 
ally said that the police themselves are recruited 
from amongst the very lowest classes. 

The prisons are described as being something 
awful, only to be equalled in Morocco and savage 
countries. In the market-place of beautiful Cintra 
stands the prison, against the barred windows of 
which crowd the prisoners, begging for money, 
cigarettes, and food, which are supplied to them 
through the prison bars by their friends and sym- 
pathisers, and by soft-hearted people. Those 
who are incarcerated in the upper story have 
baskets, which they lower by means of strings, 
so that they may be supplied in the same manner. 
This seems to have amused Miss Leek {Iberian 
Sketches, Chap. VI.), but it assumes a much more 
serious aspect when one considers that in those 
filthy dens all the prisoners are huddled together 
— old men and boys, the murderer and the petty 
thief, habitual criminals and unfortunate persons 
taken into custody on mere suspicion, or charged 



3 14 Portuguese Life 

with an alleged breach of some police or even rail- 
way regulation; for it must be remembered that a 
station-master has nearly the same power as a 
policeman in taking a person into custody. " No 
one shall be put in prison," says the Portuguese 
code, " except under special circumstances " ; but 
when the exceptions are considered, they are 
found to cover nearly every abuse of authority on 
the part of the pettiest official which can be con- 
ceived. Hence, all persons are obliged to submit 
to gross injustice and to a certain amount of 
blackmail if they wish to avoid the noisome ex- 
periences of a Portuguese gaol. 

The Portuguese must be undoubtedly " of a 
docile and orderly disposition," as Napier says, 
or the crying injustices to which they submit with 
such patience would lead them to revolt; and if 
this were to happen, who could attempt to predict 
what excesses would be left uncommitted by a 
violent southron mob whose passions had been 
roused to such a pitch of activity ? Perhaps paci- 
encia and amcmha have their utility, and enable 
the people to bear the ills they have. They can 
even joke and caricature themselves, and though 
the comic journals are neither brilliant nor artistic, 
they show, at least, that a sense of humour is still 
left in our L,usitanian friends. 



INDEX 

Academies, 238, 243 

Actors, 242 

Agriculture, 167 etseq. 

Alfonso XII., 28, 104, 144, 268, 273 

Alfonso XIII., 98, 272 

Amadeo, King, 143 

American War, 192 et seq. 

Amusements, 11 1 el seq. 

Andaluces, 33 

Andalucia, 33 

Apostolic party, 9 

Aragon, 29 

Army, 183 et seq. 

Art, 236 et seq. 

Artillery, 187 

Artistic furniture, 176 

Arts and crafts, 175, 176 

Asturian nurses, 27 

Asturias, 26 

Asturias, Princess of, 103, 219 

Austrian kings, 15, 21, 22 

Autos-da-fe, 18, 200, 201 



Bank of Spain, 265 

Barcelona, 266 

Basque Provinces, 26, 27, 188 

Basques, 28 

Beggars, 226 

Berwick y Alva, Duke of, 184 

315 



316 Index 

Bilbao, II, 161, 177, 178, 266 

Boletin de la Cdmara de Comercio, 163, 265 

Bueyes, 28 

Bull-fighters, 126 et seq. 

Bulls, 95 et seq. 

Bureaucracy, 148, 156 

CABESTROS, 95 

Caciqueism, 145, 148^/^^. 

Caesars, Spanish, 11, 12 

Camarilla, 6 

Campoamor, 61 

C&novas del Castillo, 136 

Capital, 174, 175 

Carlos, Don, 7, 9, 10 

Carriages, 88-90 

Casa de Campo, 84, 85 

Castelar, 139 et seq. 

Castellano, 266 

Castile, 31 

Castilians, 11, 25, 32 

Catalans, 25 

Cataluna, 17, 175, 266 

Cats, 79 el seq. 

Cervantes, 47, 48 

Cervera, Admiral, 47, 190, 193 

Cesantes, 145-147 

Characteristics, 38 et seq., 260 

Charitable institutions, 227 

Charles III., 22 

Charles V., 14 

Children, 233 

Church, the, 9, 199 

Cigar industry, 177 

Clerical question, 21, 221, 272 

Climate of Madrid, 65 et seq. 



Index 317 



Climates of Spain, 167, 170 
Cock-fighting, 112 
Colonies, 147 
Commerce, 156 et seq. 
Concas Palan, 190 
Confessional, 218, 222, 223 
Conscription, 188 
Constitution, 154 
Consumption, 67, 68 
Costume, national, 78, 79 
Courage, 42 et seq. 
Court, 97 et seq. 
Cristina, Queen, 9, 98 
Cuba, 147, 195 

Dance and song, 113 et seq. 
Dances, modern, 58, 59 
Dances, national, 112 et seq. 
Dances, religious, 20S 
Daoiz y Valarde, 46 
Democratic feeling, 6, 39 
Dignity, 38 
Donkeys, 90, 92 
Dos de Mayo, 45 
Drama, modern, 209, 240 et seq. 
Dramas, religious, 209-212 
Dress of Spanish women, 62 

ECHEGARAY, 241 

Education, 159, 213 
Electra, 219, 242 
Electrical science, 214 
Elephant and bull, 126 
Emperors, Roman, 12 
Empteomania, 145, 146, 152 
Engineers, 214 



3*8 Index 

Espinosa, Monteros de, 102 
Estremadura, 32 

Etiquette of Spanish Court, 100 et seq. 
Exports, 177 

Factories, 175, 176, 266 

Ferdinand and Isabella, 5, 13, 15 

Ferdinand VII., 8, 22 

Feria of Seville, 34 

Fertility of soil, 73 

Fiestas, 116, 206 

Flowers, 73 

Folklore, 253 et seq. 

Ford, 51 

French influence, 173 

Fuente Castellana, 78 

Filer os, 10, 28, 188 

Fueros of Aragon, 29 

Gai,a procession, 108, 109 
Gald6s, 219, 248 
Galicia, 25, 26 
Gallegos, 26, 87 
Games, national, in 
Gayangos, 246 
Geographical features, 178 
Gloriosa, La, 10, 262 
Goths, 12, 24 
Government, 142 et seq. 
Government, local, 153 
Grandes of Spain, 100 
Guitar, 113, 238 

Hippodrome, 62 
Horse-racing, 125 
Horses, 91 et seq. 



Index 3 X 9 



Iberian rejon, 118 

Iberian unity, 251 

Incas, 18 

Independence, War of, 45 

Industries, 161, 263 et seq. 

Infantas, 54, 103, 106 

Influence of the Press, 129 

Inquisition, 19, 199, 200, 271 

Irrigated land, 172 

Irrigation, 171 et seq. 

Isabel II., 6, 53, 107, 207 

Isabel la Catolica, 5, 8, 15, 29, 270 

Jaime, Don, 8 

Jota Aragonesa, 114 

Jesuits, 199, 213, 217, 218, 220 et seq., 272 

Journalists, 130 

King Alfonso XIII., 272, 273 
Kings, Austrian, 21, 22 
Kings, Bourbon, 8, 22, 118 

Labour, 174 

Lace, 165 

Lagartijo, 122 et seq. 

Land and people, 1 

Land laws, 173 

Landscape round Madrid, 71, 72 

Land value, 172 

Language, 266 et seq. 

Literature, modern, 246 et seq. 

Madrazo, 239, 244 
Madrid, modern, 77 
Madrid, old, 77 
Manana, 52, 74, 195, 197 
Manners, 40 



3 2 o Index 

Mantilla, 79 

Manufactures, 164, 165, 175 et seq. 

Manzanares, 83 

Marriage customs, 229 el seq. 

Medical science, 215 

Meetings, political, 138 

Mendizabal, 9, 23 

Metal work, 176 

Military system, 183 et seq. 

Mineral wealth, 160 et seq. 

Montpensier, Duke of, 104 etseq. 

Moors, 17 et seq. 

Mules, 90, 188, 255 

Music, 81, 236 

Narva ez, 249 

National feeling, 184, 185, 193 

National games, 31 

Navy, 47, 189 et seq. 

Newspapers, 132 et seq. 

Nicknames, 106 

Noche Buena, 108 

Orders, religious, 203, 213, 219, 221, 272 
Ostriches, 85 
Outlook, 260 et seq. 
Oxen, draught, 94 

Pacing horses, 90 
Painters, 239 et seq. 
Palace Royal, 61 
Palacio, 23 
Pardo Bazan, 251 
Pardo, el, 85 
Parque de Madrid, 71 
Pasos y 210 
Passion plays, 209, 212 



Index 321 



Pavia, 140 

Pavo, pelando el, 230 

Peasants, 24 et seq. 

Pelayo, 61 

Pelota, 31, 11 t 

People, 38 et seq. 

Philip II., 16, 202, 271 

Pigs, 166, 167 

Poetry, 114, 268 

Politeness, national, 39, 40, 51, 52 

Political parties, 7, 134 et seq. 

Politicians, 50, 135 

Polios and pollas, 88, 89 

Ports and harbours, 178 

Pottery, 175, 176 

Poverty, 226 

Press, 129 et seq. 

Priesthood, 199, 218 

Prim, 142-144 

Procrastination, 52 

Productive land, 172 

Pronunciamtentos, 144, 145, 147, 186 

Protestants, 216 

Pyrenees, 25, 30 

Queen Cristina, 97, 98, 103 
Queen Mercedes, 97, 106 
QuemaderOy 20, 201 
Quijote, Don, 48 
Quixotic characteristics, 48 

Race, 24 

Railways, 157 et seq. 
Regent, 9, 98, 145 
Religion, 37, 109, 198 e seq. 
Republic, 139, 141 
Restoration, 144 



3 2 2 Index 

Revolution, 10, 262 

Rice, 161 

Riding, 89 

Roads, 180 

Roman Spain, 11, 12 

Romero Robledo, 136, 137 

Sagasta, 151 

Sala, 33 

Salic Law, 8, 9 

Schools, 159, 160 

Seises, los, 208, 209 

Sericulture, 164 

Serrano, 105 

Sheep, merino, 32, 166 

Shipping, 178 

Silk manufactures, 16, 164 

Silvela, 151 

Smoking, 36, 60 

Society, 55 et seq. 

Songs, 33, 81, 82, 114, 238 

Songs and dancing, 114 

Spanish-American War, 1, 192 et seq. 

Sugar industry, 168 

Superstitions popular, 102, 205, 233 

Teatro Real, 62 

Telegraphic system, 181 

Terror of 1824, 22 

Tertulia, 56 et seq. 

Theatres, 62, 116 

Tobacco, 177 

Toledo, 15 

Toothpicks, 63 

Torero s y 121 

Tribunal de las Aguas y 34 



Index 3 2 3 



Universities, 159 
Usted, de, 98 

Valencia, 34 
Valera, Juan, 61 
Velo, 79 

Verse-making, 257 
Virgin, 37, 203 

War of Independence, 45 et seq. 

War, Spanish-American, 1, 192 et seq. 

Wars, Carlist, 9 

Water, want of, 169 

Wellington, Duke of, 26 

Weyler, General, 186 

Wines, 162 et seq. 

Women, 53, 62, 229 et seq., 249 

Wood-carving, 176 

Woollen manufactures, 164 

Working men, 21, 83, 241, 261 

Zarzuela, 116 
Zorilla, 122, 252 
Zortico zorisco, 115 

PORTUGUESE IvIFE 

AGRICULTURE, 301, 302 
Aloes, 301 
Amanha, 280 
Amusements, 296, 302 
Army, 298 
Artisan class, 292 

Bacalhao, 294 
Bargaining, love of, 287 
Brazilian elements, 287-291 
Bull -fighting, 307 et seq. 



324 Index 

Camoens, 281 

Characteristics, 278 et seq., 284, 285 

Charities, 296 

C/iula, 296 

Cleanliness, 289 

Coimbra, 283 

Costumes, 285, 300 

Customs, 285 

Dances, 296 

Decorations and forms of address, 289 

Fish, 294 
Fish-girls, 293 
Funerals, 306 

Gai^egos, 292 

Gallenga, 293 
Government, local, 310 

Insects, 290 
Institutions, 298 
Intellectual life, 281 

Land and people, 277 
Language, 283 
Laws, 312 
Lisbon, 281 
Londonderry, Lord, 277 

Manners and morality, 289 
Medical training, 288 
Military system, 298 
Mineral wealth, 281 
Moustachios, ladies', 286 

National fare, 294 



Index 3 2 5 



Navy, 299 
Newspapers, 284 

Octroi duties, 295 
Oporto, 293 
Oxen, 300 

Peninsular War, 277 
Police, 311 
Postal service, 284 
Prisons, 313 

Religion, 304, 305 et seq. 

Scenery, 285 
Servants, 290 
Society, 286 

University, 283 

Wages, 292 
Wealth, 292 
Wealth, mineral, 281 
Women, 285, 287, 307 



THE END 



Our European Neighbours 

Edited by WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON 

12°. Illustrated. Each, net $1.20 
By Mall 1.30 

I.— FRENCH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 

By Hannah Lynch. 

"Miss Lynch's pages are thoroughly interesting and suggestive. 
Her style, too, is not common. It is marked by vivacity without 
any drawback of looseness, and resembles a stream that runs 
strongly and evenly between walls. It is at once distinguished and 
useful. . . . Her five-page description (not dramatization) of the 
grasping Paris landlady is a capital piece of work. . . . Such 
well-finished portraits are frequent in Miss Lynch's book, which is 
small, inexpensive, and of a real excellence. ' ' — The London A cademy. 
" Miss Lynch 's book is particularly notable. It is the first of a 
series describing the home and social life of various European 
peoples — a series long needed and sure to receive a warm welcome. 
Her style is frank, vivacious, entertaining, captivating, just the 
kind for a book which is not at all statistical, political, or contro- 
versial. A special excellence of her book, reminding one of Mr. 
Whiteing's, lies in her continual contrast of the English and the 
French, and she thus sums up her praises : • The English are 
admirable : the French are lovable.' "—The Outlook. 

II.— GERMAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 

By W. H. Dawson, author of " Germany and the 
Germans," etc. 

"The book is as full of correct, impartial, well-digested, and 
well-presented information as an egg is of meat. One can only 
recommend it heartily and without reserve to all who wish to gain 
an insight into German life. It worthily presents a great nation, 
now the greatest and strongest in Europe." — Commercial Advertiser. 

III.— RUSSIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 

By Francis H. E. Palmer, sometime Secretary to 
H. H. Prince Droutskop-Loubetsky (Equerry to 
H. M. the Emperor of Russia). 

" We would recommend this above all other works of its charac- 
ter to those seeking a clear general understanding of Russian life, 
character, and conditions, but who have not the leisure or inclina- 
tion to read more voluminous tomes. ... It cannot be too highly 
recommended, for it conveys practically all that well-informed 
people should know of 'Our European Neighbours.' "—Mail and 
Express. 

Q. P* PUTNAM'S SONS 

New York and London 



Our European Neighbours 

IV.— DUTCH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 

By P. M. Hough, B.A. 

Not alone for its historic past is Holland interesting, but also 
for the paradox which it presents to-day. It is difficult to reconcile 
the old-world methods seen all over the country with the advanced 
ideas expressed in conversation, in books, and in newspapers. Mr. 
Hough's long residence in the country has enabled him to present 
a trustworthy picture of Dutch social life aud customs in the seven 
provinces, — the inhabitants of which, while diverse in race, dialect, 
and religion, are one in their love of liberty and patriotic devotion. 

"Holland is always interesting, in any line of study. In this 
work its charm is carefully preserved. The sturdy toil of the people, 
their quaint characteristics, their conservative retention of old dress 
aud customs, their quiet absteution from taking part in the great 
affairs of the world are clearly reflected in this faithful mirror. The 
illustrations are of a high grade of photographic reproductions." — 
Washington Post. 



V.— SWISS LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 

By Alfred T. Story, author of the " Building of 
the British Empire," etc. 

"We do not know a single compact book on the same subject 
in which Swiss character in all its variety finds so sympathetic and 
yet thorough treatment ; the reason of this being that the author 
has enjoyed privileges of unusual intimacy with all classes, which 
prevented his lumping the people as a whole without distinction 
of racial and cantonal feeling."— Nation. 

"There is no phase of the lives of these sturdy republicans, 
whether social or political, which Mr. Story does not touch upon ; 
and an abundance of illustrations drawn from unhackneyed sub- 
jects adds to the value of the book."— Chicago Dial. 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
New York and London 



Our European Neighbours 

VI.— SPANISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 

By L. Higgin. 

The new volume in the fascinating series entitled " Our Euro- 
pean Neighbours " ought to be of special interest to Americans, as 
it describes faithfully, and at the same time in a picturesque stvle, 
the social life of a people who have been much maligned by the 
casual globe-trotter. Spain has sunk from the proud position which 
she held during the Middle Ages, but much of the force and energy 
which charged the old-time Spaniard still remains, and there is to- 
day a determined upward movement out of the abyss into which 
despotism and bigotry had plunged her. 



IN PREPARATION 
ITALIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 

By Luigi VlLLARI. 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
New York and London 



WOMEN OF THE RENAISSANCE 

A Study of Feminism. Translated by George 
Herbert Ely. 8°. With portrait . net, $3.50 

" We have only admiration to bestow upon this most intri- 
cate and masterly analysis of the great feminine revolution of 
the sixteenth century. . . . There are chapters that we find 
ourselves wishing everybody might read ; the admirable essay, 
for instance, on the ' Embroidery of Life,' and that other 
chapter discussing the influence of Platonism. . . ." — Athen- 
ceum, London. 

" Everything is so brightly, so captivatingly important in 
this volume, the search into the past has been so well re- 
warded, the conclusions are so shrewd and clever, the subject 
is so limitless, yet curiously limited, that as history or as psy- 
chology it should gain a large public." — Bookman. 

THE ART OF LIFE 

Translated by George Herbert Ely. 8°. 

(By mail, $1.85) .... net, $1.75 

There is no one to whom Buffon's phrase, Le style cest 
Vhomme mime, may be more justly applied than to M. de 
Maulde. His work is absolutely himself ; it derives from his 
original personality and his wide and sure learning an histori- 
cal value and a literary charm almost unique. He is a wit 
with the curiosity and patience of the scholar, and a scholar 
with the temperament of the artist. The sparkle and humour 
of his conversation are crystallised in his letters, the charming 
expression of a large and generous nature. 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
New York London 




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